1855 United States Tycoon

It was night now, the sun had gone down, but the moon had not risen yet, only the stars in the sky were left. The noisy streets during the day have been silent, there are no pedestrians on the streets, only the gas lamp on the side of the road is still emitting dim light.

In this era before the electrical revolution, the night life at night is always monotonous. People with a little bit of money may light candles, and the family will gather around the table to chat together, or let the dignified hostess. , I will read a paragraph for everyone, sometimes it’s the Bible, sometimes it’s a novel.

For those who have no money, there is basically only one thing to do at night, and that is to go to bed. The Scrooge family was just between the two. Their family was neither rich enough to light a large number of candles with seven silver candlesticks, illuminating the entire hall brightly, and not like the food and clothing. Like the poorest poor, he can't even light an oil lamp. So, after dark, they would also light up an oil lamp, and Old Joseph would continue to do something with the light. In the past, Scrooge would use this light to read and do his homework, and his Dage would also take advantage of the light to read the book—— Sometimes it's the Bible (almost everyone has a set of this stuff), and sometimes it's some novels he borrowed from his former classmate, Mr. Tal's son Peter.

Mr. Tal is a regular customer of Scrooge's family. He is a kind and big man. In Scrooge's words, Mr. Tal is a good-tempered brown bear. His wife died very early, leaving him with two sons and a young daughter. Mr. Taer runs a small company that specializes in cotton trading. Although he is not a rich man, he is also regarded as a middle-class family, so his family has a lot of books. His eldest son Peter is a classmate of Carol, and the two have a good relationship, so Carol can often borrow some books from their home to read.

Now, the youngest child in the family has also graduated. According to reason, it is not necessary to light the lights at night. However, the habits formed in the past few years cannot be changed for a while. So, now, every night, the activities at home have become Carol or Scrooge reading a novel for everyone, and tonight it is Carol's turn to read a novel for everyone.

"At first, Marius thought this was another daughter of the same man, roughly the Big sis of the previous one. However, when the usual walking habit led him to the bench for the second time, he only recognized it after looking carefully. She is still the same one. In six months, the little girl has become a girl, and that's it. This phenomenon is extremely common. There is a moment when the girls seem to be buds that suddenly spit out, blinking. It became a blossoming rose. Yesterday the Deva ignored them as children. When we meet again today, they feel that they are disturbing..."

Scrooge is very familiar with this story. This is the part in Les Misérables where Marius meets Cosette. When he was in college in his previous life, Scrooge once liked Hugo's work very much, and once dreamed of meeting a fairy-like girl at the end of a secluded path in a park. However, as I grew older, I gradually realized that the world is not what Hugo wrote. There are not so many kind and great people in the world. Most kind people are also very weak at the same time. As depicted in ". So in the end, Balzac became his favorite writer. But obviously, Dage likes Hugo very much.

Hearing Carol's recitation today, Scrooge suddenly remembered Mr. Tal's daughter Anne that he met when he went to Mr. Tal's home with Dage to borrow books two days ago. Annie is three years younger than Carol. She is just fifteen and she is a young age. You can see the brilliance of youth leaping continuously in her flaxen hair and big green eyes, really like a rose that suddenly reveals its fragrance. Scrooge discovered at the time that Dage's tongue was knotted when talking to her. Today Dage suddenly read this paragraph again, it seems...

Just as Scrooge was irresponsibly guessing about the relationship between Dage and Annie, suddenly there was a knock on the door. It was already night, and someone knocked on the door at this time, which was unusual.

Carol put down the book and said, "I'll take a look." Then he asked loudly, "Who is it?"

"It's me, I'm John Rockefeller. Is Scrooge at home?" John Rockefeller's voice came from outside the door.

"I'll come." Scrooge said as he stood up to open the door.

Scrooge opened the door and saw John standing in the doorway. It seemed that he had walked a lot and was still panting slightly.

"Is there anything, John?" Scrooge said, seeing John panting a little, and then said, "Come in and talk."

John Rockefeller nodded and followed Scrooge through the door. At this time, Carol had already put away the "Les Miserables", and everyone looked at John Rockefeller who walked in with Scrooge.

"John, have you found a job?" Joseph asked. Some time ago, John Rockefeller often came to give lectures to Scrooge, and Joseph and Carroll often followed them. So now the Scrooge family and John Rockefeller are very familiar.

"Yes, Joseph Uncle, I got a job, just today!" The joy on John Rockefeller's face could not be concealed.

"Ah, it's not easy, congratulations! Which company is it?" Carol was also very happy for him.

"It's Hewitt Tuttle Company." John Rockefeller replied. Then he looked at the expressions on everyone's faces and knew that everyone was not familiar with this company, so he explained, "It's a business in ore and agricultural products. The company is not very large, but its development is pretty good now..."

"John, your vision can't be wrong." Joseph said, "Carol, take out my half bottle of brandy. I want to have a drink with John."

"Okay." Carol immediately got up to get the brandy and wine glass.

"John, tell me about the treatment that company gives you?" Scrooge asked.

John Rockefeller sat down in a chair and said: "The probation period is three months, during which there is no salary. In addition to keeping accounts, I am also responsible for collecting accounts, and there may be other businesses."

Scrooge, who paid special attention to the market rules of this era, now also knows that the probation period is as long as one quarter, and that naked exploitation without wages during this period is the practice at this time. "This is really a golden age for capitalists." Scrooge thought silently, but said to Rockefeller: "Three months will be very fast. As long as you have achieved results, you will be able to sign a formal contract. Wait for that time. You can have a stable income."

"Thank you for your encouragement, Scrooge!" said John Rockefeller, "and especially thank you for the ideas you gave me. Besides, I have something to discuss with you today."

"What's the matter?" Scrooge asked.

"I took a serious look at the company's accounts today and found that the company has a lot of debts that have not been recovered. I asked my colleagues and they told me that some of them had a small amount of debts, and they came to the door specifically for such a small amount of money. It seems that the collection is not very good, and some of the debts are the old customers of the company, which are not easy to offend... I want to know what you think."

"I want to hear what you think first." Scrooge smiled, but replied like this.

John Rockefeller thought for a while, and then said: "I think when the boss offered me this opportunity, he specifically proposed that I have to undertake some collection work. Therefore, the boss very much hopes to be able to recover the money, even if this is the case. Each of the owed money seems to be small, but the accumulation of small amounts will accumulate into a pile of sand. If you can come back, the boss will naturally be very happy. A lot of this money is owed by old customers. For the sake of relationship, it is not convenient for the boss to ask for- —It’s not good for the faces of both parties — then, it’s much more convenient for a person with very little qualifications, who is not even a member of the company, to ask them for the money. Even if there is something, it’s not As for the relationship that really affects the relationship between the two parties. If the old customer is really angry, the boss can fire me to vent his anger. Therefore, I think I must be able to recover the money, but I can't To make things too loud, you must take proper measures."

Scrooge noticed that when Rockefeller said these words, he hesitated at first, but became more and more fluent in the later words. Obviously, he has considerable confidence in own views. Moreover, Scrooge also noticed that from the beginning, he analyzed the problem from the perspective of the boss!

"I agree with you, John. I think the most critical issue now is to understand the limits of what we can achieve." Scrooge thought for a while and said, "I think the situation is different for the debts. , We have to consider various situations and corresponding countermeasures. First consider the worst case, that is, the attitude of the party who owes money is that it can not pay it back, and if it can pay back tomorrow morning, it will never pay it back tonight. In other words. , He is completely in arrears maliciously. So how can we get them to pay back the money? We have to prove to them that we have the means to cause more damage to them than the benefits they can’t get by owing the debt-note, Just to prove this to them, there is no need to really do it. Of course, if they are not on the road, once they start doing it, we must throw away all worries and hurt him! Such people, even regular customers, because He is obviously malicious, so he is not too important to the company. Getting rid of such a guy is not a bad thing for the boss."

"Then what means do we have to cause him such a loss, do we rely on the court? Scrooge, the court is very inefficient, and it is not unusual for a case to drag on for several years." Rockefeller said

"Don't worry about this, I have a solution." Scrooge said with a smile. As a descendant, although he has not worked in a debt collection agency or the like, he is quite familiar with the methods commonly used in this type of business. of.

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