1855 United States Tycoon

In the tentative offensive launched by the United States Army, it fell into the fire trap prepared by the Spaniards and suffered heavy losses. This setback of the U.S. military has attracted widespread attention. At first, everyone thought that there would be no ups and downs in this battle. Spain's performance was simply vulnerable, making the entire United States dream of winning before Christmas. Today’s frustration is like a blow to the head, and the United States, which has been optimistic, seems to be overwhelmed.

Such ups and downs may not be what the people of United States want to see, but for some special interest groups, it is definitely a good thing. For example, for newspapers and other media, this is definitely a good thing. Because of the defeat of the U.S. military, the sales of newspapers have soared. Of course, in this matter, newspapers are not the most profitable. In terms of making money, some speculators in the futures market have made a lot of money recently.

Cuba is the most important cane sugar producer in the world, so the situation in Cuba will significantly affect the price of cane sugar. In the futures market, this will continue to manifest as the rise and fall of sugar futures prices. Today's agricultural product futures trading has developed a lot more than when Scrooge started. For example, the trading leverage has changed a lot, and it has been enlarged to fifty times. This also means that as long as there is a 1% price fluctuation, it can bring 50% profit or loss.

Cuban resisters and the Macdonald consortium have come and go often for many years. This big tree is shady, and the Cuban resisters naturally also have the heart to rely on the big tree to enjoy the coolness. Therefore, the MacDonald Consortium has controlled a lot of cane sugar plantations in Cuba. With intelligence capabilities and the ability to judge the situation of the war, there are few consortia in this world that can match the MacDonald Consortium. Therefore, This naturally means that the MacDonald consortium can almost do whatever it wants in the sugar futures market. As a result, in just one day, under the direct command of Greystone, the Macdonald Consortium robbed a full eight million dollars from the sugar futures market.

Nowadays, the new generation of Macdonald consortium seems to be more and more interested in making money through financial means rather than through industrial means. This has almost become a trend. Control the most important and critical economic sectors, and then you can Man-made fluctuations in the manufacturing market, so as to make a lot of money easily and happily. A major feature of the capitalist economy is that the fundamental purpose of all economic activities is not to create products, but to obtain profits. Producing industrial products that can be used is only one way to make a profit.

Because of this, every once in a while, capitalists will make a creative attempt, which is to try to skip redundant production links and directly obtain profits more efficiently. Of course, this approach has a more lofty name, called "financial innovation." It comes with fast money, high profits, and relatively hidden, naturally it has become the favorite choice of those capitalists. For example, in later generations, Amei, you see that the main oil producing areas are disturbing the wind and rain, but in the end it seems that there are not many oil fields that fall into your own hands. So a bunch of people who are not familiar with this kind of method, or those who are familiar but deliberately don't talk about it, naturally took this fact to shout out: "Look, United States is definitely not for oil! It is for democracy! Ah! Look, great sister, the beacon of freedom, the hope of mankind! Barbarabara..." What they said was not all wrong. Wall Street and the Bush family got rid of the silly big tree. It was not directly for oil. More It is for oil futures. As long as you control the rise and fall of futures prices, you can make several times more money than opening oil fields in minutes. What? You said the cost of war is very expensive? That was paid by all taxpayers, not Wall Street.

It's just that now, the actions in the sucrose market are just small actions, because there is a bigger market that is about to have greater volatility. This market is the precious metals market.

On December 5, 1897, the day when the American army was frustrated in the attack on the Sacred Land Yago Naval Port, Scrooge asked the Blackwater instructors to hand over a piece of information to the Boers.

"Britain has mobilized 2,000 troops from the Mediterranean and India, and will arrive in the Cape Colony in the near future. In addition, next month, the United Kingdom will also mobilize one or two divisions from the mainland to South Africa." President Kruger read the intelligence statement. Then he turned his head and said to his cabinet members: "Do you think this information is true?"

"Mr. President, the authenticity of the intelligence will be revealed in a few days. A colonial army of four thousand people is not enough to change the balance of forces. But if the local division mentioned later arrives, the British may think they have it. Armed force solves our ability." General Piet Joubert replied, "In short, we must be ready to respond immediately. Mr. President, once the colonial army mobilized by the British in advance arrives, I think we should send it domestically. Mobilization order."

"Mr. President, I think it is not small for the British to act on us." Another cabinet member also replied: "Now the United States are fighting against Spain. Although the British have verbally expressed their support for Spain, But there is no real action. I think the reason why the people of United States dare to move to Spain is that they think about the problems between us and the United Kingdom. States fought like they did in 1812, what will we do?"

This made the originally worried group a rare smile. Indeed, if the British really fought with the United States, what would the Transvaal Republic do? of course? It must have taken the opportunity to drive the British out of South Africa. Such things are fascinating to think about.

"Since the British resisted and did not do anything, I think everyone knows the reason why they did not do it. If we are British, can we tolerate our own power being held back for a long time?" However, this question immediately pushed everyone back. In the cruel reality. Indeed, the British cannot tolerate the infinite delay of the situation in South Africa. Because this delay has already brought evil results. Therefore, as long as there is no problem with the head of the British, they will definitely solve the problem as soon as possible. And the way to solve the problem, there is no doubt that it can only be war!

"From various circumstances, it is very likely that this information is true." President Kruger set the tone for this information.

The first half of this intelligence from a friend in United States is undoubtedly true. Of course, the latter is completely nonsense. To mobilize two local army divisions, the British don’t plan to spend so much effort. At the beginning, the British never thought that the Boers would be so difficult to deal with. Therefore, at the beginning, the British really did not intend to mobilize elite troops from their homeland to solve the problem.

Just a day later, the Boers themselves had another piece of information. The paper stated that the new governor of the Cape colony had written a letter to the Queen of England a few days ago, asking for domestic support to solve the problem of discrimination against the British in the Transvaal Republic. This information and the information from the United States are mutually corroborated, and it proves more and more that the British are going to act on the Transvaal Republic.

After another three days, the intelligence of the United States was finally confirmed by direct evidence that a British colonial army of 2,000 people from the Mediterranean region came ashore in the Port of Cape Town. The Boer's espionage personnel deployed in Cape Town witnessed the landing of the army.

So General Piet Joubert, commander of the army of the Transvaal Republic, approached President Kruger.

"Mr. President, the intelligence has been confirmed, and the British are imminent. Please issue a mobilization order and allow us to take the initiative to attack British targets."

Once the war is inevitable, take the initiative and strike first. This is the best plan that the generals of the Transvaal Republic and the instructors of Blackwater have come to after a long period of research. Although morally speaking, it is best not to fire the first shot. However, to do this, prerequisites are required. That is, it is best to have the strength to ensure that the opponent will never have the opportunity to fire a second shot. If you can't do this, you must at least make sure that the enemy who preempts the enemy will not be seriously damaged and cannot be recovered. To ensure that the political benefits of not firing the first shot are far greater than the damage of being the first shot, otherwise it would be a fool.

Obviously, the power of the Transvaal Republic could not bear to let the British fire the first shot. If you are stupid enough to let the British prepare step by step, then after the British fired the first shot, it is estimated that the Boers will have no chance to fire the second shot and will be killed directly. Not firing the first shot is, in a sense, the privilege of the strong. The Boers have no such qualifications, at least when facing the British Empire, the most powerful empire in human history, absolutely no such qualifications.

For the Boers, if war must break out, then the best situation is definitely to attack the British colony in South Africa before the main force of the British has arrived. If they can capture important ports such as Cape Town before the arrival of the main British forces, then the British army will need to fight the most complicated landing battle of all battles. Moreover, even if the British army successfully landed without a port, it would be very, very difficult to provide logistical supplies. Even if the British army retakes the port, when they retake the port, the facilities in the port will be destroyed long ago. To restore its function will require a lot of time and materials. In this way, the cost of war will be straight ascending. In the eyes of the Boers, the British are a group of businessmen. If the cost of a war is too high and the rate of return is too low, then it is entirely possible for them to seek compromise.

"Let's do it," said President Kruger, "you put the army on alert first, and then I will make one final diplomatic effort."

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