1850 American Gold Tycoon

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

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

The entire economy of the United States is highly tied to the railroad, a carriage hurtling toward the abyss, with no chance of turning around.

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

You must jump out of the car, but the timing of jumping out of the car is critical.

Vanderbilt isn't sure whether it's a wise decision to jump in with Liang Yao now.

If he jumps too late, he will never recover, but if he jumps too early, the railroad industry in the United States is still booming, and he will make a lot less money.

Capitalists are all greedy. For capitalists, making less money means losing money. Making less money is an acceptable choice for ordinary people, but not necessarily for capitalists.

Vanderbilt took out some more data he had collected. The first data was California's gold production in the past two years, as well as his own statistics of capital withdrawn from the American market to Europe this year.

“Since 1850, there is no doubt that California’s gold has contributed to the U.S. economy. If the U.S. 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. This is equivalent to the locomotive slowing down. When the locomotive slows down, the speed of the train will naturally slow down.

In addition, if you look at these, since the end of the Crimean War, European and American capital has rapidly returned to Europe. European capitalists have always had a very 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 looked through the data, and the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became.

The international hot money from Europe can leave after making enough money in the United States, but it is difficult for them, the American capitalists, to stay out of the situation.

"Father."

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

"Look, what I found on Wall Street is the latest financial product rmfb issued by the Pheasant Railway Company. I thought it was necessary to show you these things, so I came here."

The full name of rmfb is therailrebonds (railway farm mortgage bonds).

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

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

In the American capital market, according to the order of financing, railway companies first borrow from large banks. If the large banks fail to lend money, they will borrow from small and medium-sized banks.

If bank loans don't work, then go to Wall Street to raise funds. If you can't raise funds on Wall Street through conventional methods, then you have to 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 offer to farmers who own land and exchanges the company's shares for the farmers' land.

Then, the land obtained from farmers is used as collateral and packaged into financial products such as RMFB to raise funds from the Wall Street capital market.

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

To put it bluntly, the railway company in the middle is using farmers' land to extend the life of its own company.

"No annual interest rate is less than 10%. They really dare to give such a high interest rate! If they do this, they will destroy the entire railway industry! Even the country!"

Vanderbilt was suffocated by the shameless operations of these people, and he threw these so-called financial products into the trash can like waste paper.

Offering such a high interest rate shows that those junk railway companies can no longer sell RMFB at normal interest rates. They can only raise interest rates to attract greedy and stubborn speculators to enter the market.

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

The current situation is no longer that the carriage of the railway industry is hurtling towards the abyss, but that there are a bunch of explosives tied to the carriage that will be detonated at an unknown time, and that the carriage may also be falling into the abyss. It had been blown to pieces by explosives on the car before.

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

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

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

"The consequences are so serious? Will the economic crisis of 10 years ago happen again?"

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

At the same time, William also admired Liang Yao. What he didn't see through in New York, Liang Yao in California had already seen through and left the game early.

"If the economic crisis of ten years ago reappears, it will be God taking care of the United States." Vanderbilt said with a wry smile.

In the 1850s, the United States had not yet completed industrialization and was still an agricultural country.

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

rmfb has already been involved in agriculture. If nothing else, many companies will follow suit in this so-called financial product, and interest rates will also be raised higher.

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

Moreover, the crisis between the North and the South has not been completely resolved, and now there is another crisis.

With such a mess, not to mention Buchanan, who is expected to become president, even Washington and Jefferson may not be able to resolve this crisis and rescue the United States from the crisis.

"Withdraw all capital, how will the money be arranged?"

William made a rough estimate. If they all cashed out and left only the Central Railway Company, the Vanderbilt family would have as much as $23 million in liquidity.

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

"I won't move for now. I will go to California to investigate in person. Liang Yao's petrochemical industry has been very prosperous 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 thinking for a moment, he said, while he did not forget to emphasize to William.

"You must keep a low profile when selling stocks, do you understand?"

"I understand, Father." William nodded.

"Father, have I done you a big favor?"

After the conversation between the Vanderbilts and his son, Clark asked Vanderbilt for credit.

"As soon as this financial product came on the market, I noticed something was wrong and immediately spent $8,000 to buy it for you to review!"

"Got it." Vanderbilt nodded calmly, then issued a $30,000 Bank of America check to Clark, handed it to Clark, and praised him.

"You did very well."

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

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

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

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The employment contracts between Liang Yao and Kony had expired. After Zeiss returned, 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 will not only bring you a bright future, but you can also learn a lot of things that you can't learn." Kony patted Zeiss on the shoulder and said sincerely.

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

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

"Zeiss, although your godfather and I are good friends, we are all equal. I don't care for idlers, especially in such an important position." Before signing the employment contract, Liang Yao first said some ugly things to inoculate Zeiss.

"With a six-month probationary period, if you can meet my expectations, I will provide you with a long-term contract. If you cannot, you will find another way out."

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

However, the business of the American Group is much more complicated than that of the Atlantic Railway Company, and Liang Yao's assistant is not qualified for the job.

Since 1850, he has had three assistants: Coney, Hu Jinchen, and Carnegie. Except for Hu Jinchen, who is slightly less capable, Coney and Carnegie have outstanding abilities and have very high business talents.

Liang Yao was not sure whether Zeiss was qualified to serve as an assistant.

Just because Zeiss did well in business school didn't mean he would be a good assistant.

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

Zeiss has been waiting for this day to play for Liang Yao for six full years.

If it hadn't been for Liang Yao and Cai Mingsheng, Zeiss didn't know whether his family could have survived in California, a law-less state where the law of the jungle was strong, and successfully study in a business school in New York.

For being able to reach this day, Zeiss is very grateful to Liang Yao and Cai Mingsheng.

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

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

Six years ago, Zeiss could only be described as a smart kid. Now, Zeiss is full of confidence and calmness in his movements. This kind of self-confidence and calmness requires inner things to support it.

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

Effective assistants are hard to find, and effective and loyal assistants are even harder to find.

"My father sent a telegram saying that he was coming to California."

Yin Lisabai came to Liang Yao's office with a slightly bulging belly.

Liang Yao walked up to Lisa Bai Yin 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."

As the environment in San Francisco is getting worse day by day, Liang Yao is ready to move to Sacramento, but the construction of his estate in Sacramento has not yet been completed.

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

After discovering that Yin Lisabai was pregnant, Liang Yao repeatedly persuaded Yin Lisabai to move to Sacramento. However, Yin Lisabai insisted on staying in San Francisco on the grounds that it was more convenient to handle the group's affairs in San Francisco.

"Koney has just completed the handover with Zeiss. You usually have to deal with state affairs. How can you handle so many things within the Americas Group by yourself?" Lisa Bai Yin shook her head.

Liang Yao and his father were of the same type. When his father was young, he was often away from home for several months due to work problems. Yin Lisabai was mentally prepared before marrying Liang Yao.

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

And Liang Yao was not only involved in politics, he was also the military commander of the entire western region. God knows how Liang Yao survived all these years alone.

If she can share some affairs with Liang Yao, the burden on Liang Yao's shoulders will be lighter.

Liang Yao knew that he couldn't persuade Yin Lisabai, so he gave Kony a wink.

Kony is a smart man and figured it out quickly.

Kony supported Yin Lisabai and said, "Sister, my brother-in-law and I are with each other. It's just a contract. We are all family members. It doesn't matter 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 to save you all nagging in my ears." Yin Lisabai relented.

After promising to move to Sacramento, Lisa Yin talked about work again: "The Americas Group has too many businesses and is too complicated. It is involved in almost every industry, and the management costs and difficulties have exceeded the limits that the group can bear. Several A few months ago, I inspected many branches of the group and the management was very mixed.

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

In this era, there are no telephones, no faxes, and no Internet. The management costs of companies, especially large comprehensive group companies, are very high.

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

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

But the telegraph's ability and efficiency to spread information was still very limited.

This is also the reason why most of the giants of this era only work 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 future steel king in American history, Carnegie is deeply involved in the steel industry. , Rockefeller was deeply involved in the petrochemical industry and so on.

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

In this case, deep cultivation of a certain industry can save management costs to the greatest extent and improve competitiveness.

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

The emergence of the telegraph spawned 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 upper limit of the company to hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars.

The emergence and popularization of fax and the Internet after World War II significantly reduced the cost of doing business across borders, and the ceiling of modern companies has also reached a higher level, reaching the trillion-dollar level.

At present, the value of all assets of America Group has exceeded 100 million, making it the first American giant with assets exceeding 100 million. It is already the ceiling for comprehensive group companies in this era.

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