1855 United States Tycoon

On the morning when Scrooge "was up", Morgan also happened to be inspecting brand new equipment in the factory building of General Motors' newly-built Third Automobile Manufacturing Plant. In a few days, this factory will start production. Today, GM's stock price has been rising steadily. Compared with the reserve price when the stock was first issued, it has tripled. It is believed that these stocks will reach new highs again after the factory is successfully put into production. However, Morgan's heart is always inexplicably uneasy. Several times, he almost couldn't help it, and wanted to dump all the GM stock in his hands. But in the end, reason still suppressed sensibility, and he convinced himself. Since the forest of Poleng cannot move like Deng Xinen, and since the sword in the hands of any child born by a woman can't hurt Macbeth, what else can Macbeth worry about? Moreover, the GM shares in his hand are not too much, and all of them are lost, and it will not really hurt his muscles and bones.

Morgan knows that in order to suppress General Motors and continue to maintain its dominance in the automotive Realm, Volkswagen has frequently launched various new products recently. However, these so-called new products are actually just skinned versions of the original products. Compared with the original product, almost nothing has changed except for the appearance. Some of them didn't even change their appearance much, they just changed to new paint. If there must be any major changes, it is that they have begun to equip some high-end cars with battery-started engine systems. In the eyes of many people, the hastily thrown out "new models" one after another, in fact, can only be said to prove that Volkswagen has lost its behavior under the pressure of General Motors.

Today, Volkswagen is about to release a so-called "revolutionary" new product. But obviously now, most of the media are not particularly concerned about the so-called new products of the public. In the Sun newspaper yesterday, they even published a comic like this:

Frank, the chairman of Volkswagen, wore a uniform with a Volkswagen logo, holding an old cucumber in one hand, and holding a paint brush in the other hand, and then painted green paint on the cucumber. There is also an explanatory text next to it-Volkswagen's new product.

Morgan is not too concerned about the so-called new products of the public. He circled the factory with satisfaction, and then left the factory. He was about to board the "Silver Elf" luxury bulletproof car called "Dream" specially prepared for him by General Motors. But seeing the own secretary Conlier hurried over, his face was very wrong.

"Mr. Morgan, something went wrong." Conlier stepped forward and whispered.

Morgan glanced at him and said, "What's wrong? Let's get in the car and talk."

Conlier followed Morgan into the car without saying a word, then took out a promotional material from his purse and handed it to Morgan: "Mr. Morgan, you see, this is information about Volkswagen's new car. Now their press conference is still going on. , There will be performance demonstrations in the afternoon."

Morgan took this information, which was obviously a promotional video distributed by Volkswagen to people who came to visit at the new product launch conference. The paper is very beautifully printed. On the front is a car with a unique streamline shape. Next to it is printed a line like this: "Volkswagen Beetle, put wheels on United States." There is a more shocking line next to it. Number: "Estimated retail price: $280!"

The price surprised JPMorgan. If Volkswagen can really produce and sell such cars in large quantities at this price, then GM's related products will not be able to compete with them in price anyway. But Morgan still kept his composure because he thought: Such a cheap car must be chopped off in terms of performance. If it is too low-end, it does not constitute too much threat.

So Morgan turned the paper to the back. The performance list of this car was printed on the back. Looking at this performance list, Morgan's sweat came out.

"A 30-horsepower 6-cylinder engine, a maximum speed of 50 miles, equipped with night driving headlights, electro-acoustic horns, engine electric starting system, parking brake system, four-wheel independent torsion bar suspension system...How is this, this, such a thing possible? All concentrated on such a cheap car? Could it be that Volkswagen is selling at a loss?"

Morgan immediately said to the driver: "Go to the Central Park Laboratory right away." He felt that it is best to consult a professional technology person for questions in this regard.

...

"Thomas, is it possible to achieve this price?" Morgan asked.

"There is a certain possibility." Edison said, staring at the promotional material. This answer made Morgan's heart feel cold.

"Mr. Morgan, you see, the size of this car is quite small. Of course, it is not a problem to sit in four people. It can barely fit five adults. This is barely enough for the average family. Because The size is small, so the materials used are naturally less. This saves a large amount of cost. As for night driving headlights, electro-acoustic horns, parking brakes, independent torsion bar suspension, and liftable glass windows, these are indeed technologically Very advanced, but the patents are in their own hands, and there is no need to pay royalties." Edison replied.

"But with so many new technologies, the cost of research and development should be very high." Morgan asked.

"Of course. But these technologies can be used on other vehicles as well. And if the sales of such cars are very large, then the development cost spread on each car will be limited. However, one-time use With so many new technologies, the reliability of this vehicle may not be very good. If there are a lot of reliability problems in the early days, then we still have time to come up with something to contend with." Edison said again.

"Thomas, do you think the reliability of this thing has a high chance of going wrong?" Morgan asked.

"It should be very high. It uses too many new technologies." Edison said affirmatively.

"After getting the samples, how long will it take you to come up with the equivalent products?" Morgan asked again.

Edison didn't dare to answer this question immediately. After thinking about it for a while, he finally said to Morgan: "All of this has to wait until the product is obtained. Some things may not only involve design, but may also involve material technology. If it involves This aspect of technology, we need a long time. Because we have to experiment in the same way, especially the heat treatment skills, there is almost no theoretical guidance, and it depends entirely on luck, just like ancient alchemy. Therefore, it is difficult for me to say how long it will take."

At this moment, Conlier ran over again suddenly. His face was pale, as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

"What's the matter, Conlier?" Morgan asked. "What happened?"

Conlier replied with a trembling voice: "Mr. Morgan, Shi, Shi, and Scrooge have awakened! And appeared on the scene of the product performance display!" Morgan could clearly hear Conlier saying this. The sound of uncontrolled collision of upper and lower teeth.

"Well, how is this possible?" Edison's face was pale and he could hardly stand still. He stretched out his hand to support a corner of the table to prevent himself from falling. Edison knew that if Scrooge really woke up, it would be a huge mistake for him to leave the large laboratory. From now on, he will face the competition in the large laboratory led by Scrooge. He is too aware of the power of the big laboratory. Under the leadership of Scrooge, the big laboratory can crush any scientific research institution in the United States. In this big car bet, the Morgan Consortium has invested a lot of money, and they have invested much more money than Edison. However, although the money is not a small figure for the Morgan Consortium, such losses are not completely unbearable. As for him, he put all the coffin into it, and even carried a lot of debt for it. This, this is simply...

Like Edison Conlier, Morgan panicked at first. But he quickly calmed down:

"Conlier, is the news accurate? Is it indeed Scrooge? Ah, it is impossible to play a fake. Go and inform them immediately and let them come to me right away. We have fallen into a trap, and now we must think about it. Way to help yourself. Bentson, we'll go back right away."

The bodyguard Bentson responded and walked outside with Morgan.

"Mr. Morgan, what should I do?" Edison asked.

"Keep calm and think of a way to minimize the loss." Morgan said as he walked outside.

...

In Morgan's Millionaire Club, the atmosphere is now depressing and silent like a tomb. A group of bankers who used to be all-powerful, one by one are like stone statues standing on the tomb passage, without a breath of life. In the end, it was Morgan who spoke first:

"You all know the news that Scrooge is awake? I think, Scrooge is not waking up now. There is only one truth, that is, Scrooge has never been in a coma. He has been in a coma. Planning this conspiracy behind the scenes, digging this trap. We are all fooled."

"Mr. Morgan, are you sure this is a scam?" said a banker in a trembling voice, "maybe, this is just a coincidence?"

"Coincidence? Today is Sunday, and the stock market is closed. If Scrooge'wake up' one day earlier or one day later, with a faster response speed, we can also quickly sell out as many stocks as possible. Greatly reduce our losses. However, when the market is closed today, when the market opens tomorrow, there will be even one person in the United States who does not know that Scrooge wakes up, and Volkswagen has also introduced technology that is overwhelming for us. Is it a superior car? Everyone knows what will happen when the stock market opens tomorrow. Can there be such a coincidence in the world? Moreover, the General Motors, which we built at a large price, and its factory equipment, are very important to Scrooge. Volkswagen is equally useful. On the basis of the collapse of GM stocks, he only needs very little money to swallow GM as a whole. This is equivalent to us paying for him to build a series of Even, because of our losses, especially the loss of confidence, he can even allow the own bank to carry out a little limited expansion within our sphere of influence. You all know that for us, if depositors treat us Doubts about the economic situation of the country, how dangerous it would be! Such an extremely favorable situation for Scrooge cannot be formed by coincidence. There is no doubt that we have fallen into a trap and become prey. Now, we need to consider That is, what is the ultimate goal of Scrooge's doing this? How should we minimize losses as much as possible."

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