1850 American Gold Tycoon

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

Although Liang Yao had previously provided low-interest loans to Chinese immigrant families who immigrated to California, encouraging them to establish their own companies.

However, the results are not satisfactory, and not many Chinese companies can successfully stand out.

After all, most of these immigrants were farmers and fishermen, and only a few were proficient in business matters.

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

Although the Thirteenth Line has been in decline for a long time, the wealth they have accumulated over several generations is still considerable.

If they settle in California, Liang Yao can quickly establish a Chinese consortium with him as the core.

By then using the business resources these merchants had in the Qing Dynasty, he was fully confident that California would be built as a trade transit station between the Qing Dynasty and the United States.

The business ideas of these thirteen merchants were not so rigid. In his later years, Wu Bingjian had a premonition that the future of businessmen in Guangzhou was not good, and he once revealed the idea of ​​​​immigrating to the United States. In the end, he was unable to make the trip because he was old and frail and was inconvenient to take a boat.

These savvy businessmen know that eggs are not put in the same basket.

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

This is a good sign.

"The foreign consortium is here."

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

This time, the Eastern Consortium brought not only a prospecting team, but also advanced mining machines with the fleet, making it clear that they wanted to take root and build a factory here.

"The fleet is the Pacific Mail Company's fleet, and those machines belong to the Astor family. You should be lucky that they encountered some conditions 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 emerged almost overnight, became a strong competitor of Vanderbilt, and Nigel also had dealings with the Pacific Cruise Line.

Nigel knew exactly how many ships the Pacific Mail Company had, who were the company's top executives, and who were the shareholders behind it.

Not to mention the Astor family. Old Astor and Vanderbilt were famous old enemies in New York.

Once there is any news or conflict between the two, it will be trending in New York the next day and become the hottest topic.

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

Liang Yao stared at the personnel of the Pacific Mail Fleet and the Astor family who were unloading machines at the port and said.

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

"Then they are totally wrong. I believe that no gold digger is willing to give up the opportunity to make a fortune and work as a cheap labor force for them." Liang Yao was already prepared for this.

After learning that the U.S. Congress had shown signs of not recognizing the land grant from the Mexican government, Liang Yao had already prepared for the worst.

His mouthpiece, the Daily Californian, vividly explained to the miners what the future held for them as gold diggers once the consortium arrived.

These syndicates will occupy all the gold fields in California, and ordinary gold prospectors and their small gold mining companies will lose all opportunities to make money.

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

Another option is to stay in California and work for these consortiums in their factories to make ends meet.

Although they are engaged in the same gold mining work as before, the gold they panned will not belong to them, but to these plutocrats who enjoy the profits.

No matter which choice or outcome it is, these gold diggers will not be willing to accept it, at least not easily.

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

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

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

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

"I would like to hear the details, 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 sternly, "Although this is a common saying among the people, it is enough to prove that the Astor family is in Congress Although Mr. Vanderbilt also has some senator friends, their influence in Congress is far less than 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 are going to do. As long as they don't touch our gold mines in the Sacramento area, we will take advantage of it."

The Eastern Consortium does not touch the gold mining area in Sacramento. This is Liang Yao's bottom line.

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

"It seems that it will be difficult for us and them to live peacefully in California."

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

Wu Yuanhua, who was eating melon on the side, probably also figured out the whole story. He intervened: "Everyone comes to San Francisco to make a fortune. Peace is the most important thing in everything. If you have any opinions, everyone can sit down and discuss it."

Wu Yuanhua didn't know much about the United States. In his opinion, in a foreign land, one should endure as much as possible to avoid causing trouble.

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

Liang Yao asked Wu Yuanhua in reply: "Brother Wu, as far as I know, after the five-port trade, Fujian merchants and Lianghuai merchants took over a lot of business that originally belonged to Guangzhou merchants. Brother Wu, can you be willing to sit down and talk to Fujian merchants and Lianghuai merchants?" Have a good talk?

The British registered Jardine Matheson in the name of Jardine Matheson. Is Jardine Matheson willing to sit down and have a good talk about this matter with Jardine Matheson? "

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

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

"Brother Fool, I was rude, Brother Xian, please forgive me." Wu Yuanhua apologized to Liang Yao with his hands in hand.

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

"What's the connection with my father?"

Wu Yuanhua was puzzled. He just thought the name Aster sounded familiar and didn't notice anything strange.

"Old Astor owed Yihe Bank 230,000 silver dollars in the seventh year of Daoguang reign (1827) and has not yet repaid it." Liang Yao said with a smile.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Daoguang. Emperor Daoguang has passed away, and next year it will be changed to Xianfeng. It is indeed too much that the Astor family has not repaid the money owed to the Wu family for so many years. Or maybe they have no intention of repaying the Wu family's money at all.

Old Astor was even more stingy than Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt's stinginess was stinginess towards himself and his family. In shopping malls, Vanderbilt was still willing to spend money.

As for old Astor's stinginess, it was all-round stinginess, and he was the kind of person who was stingy at the same time.

To give an example, in order to show his generosity at a charity dinner, Old Astor promised ornithologist John Audubon in public that he would invest $1,000 to fund John Audubon's compilation of "Birds of the Americas". The book "Atlas" won applause from all the celebrities present.

Old Astor's vanity was also satisfied, but when John Audubon came to ask for the $1,000 investment afterwards, Old Astor would always shirk it on the grounds of financial constraints.

This poor excuse was used five times, and until the sixth time, the old Astor wanted to do it again.

He winks to his son Astor Jr. to prove that the Astor family has no money in the bank and is now strapped for cash.

Little Astor did not understand his father's intention, thinking that his father was asking how much money was left in the bank, so he told the Astor family's deposits in many banks. The bank with the smallest deposits had hundreds of thousands of dollars. .

Old Astor had no choice but to reluctantly write a check for $1,000 to John Audubon.

The Astor family members who came to visit and begged for $1,000 were put off again and again, unwilling to cash in, let alone the huge arrears of 230,000 silver dollars on the other side of the ocean.

"Damn it, Daoguang's seven-year debt has not been paid yet! This is such a rogue!"

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

But Wu Yuanhua was quite puzzled: "When my father was still alive, he mentioned this to several of our brothers, saying that the Astor family was encountering difficulties. If you can, please be considerate. I just listened to my brother's words. This Astor family has encountered difficulties." The wealth of the Te family seems quite considerable?"

Liang Yao felt angry and funny: "It's not just impressive, it's really impressive! The Astor family is now the richest family in the United States, and their lives are very prosperous."

When Astor died in 1848, he left assets to his descendants exceeding US$20 million, accounting for one hundred and seventy-seventh of the GDP of the United States that year.

There are only two people who rank higher than Astor on the list of richest people in the United States, one is the oil tycoon Rockefeller (1937) and the other is Vanderbilt (1877).

Such wealth can obviously no longer be described as considerable.