Cyber Heroes

In 1719, France established a company called the Mississippi Company. The company's main business was colonizing the lower Mississippi Valley in central America. If this task is completed, it will ensure the kingdom's huge interests in America. To fund the project, the company, which had close ties to the kingdom's court, sold its shares on the trading house.

And the big shots who probably represented the court, out of various considerations, trumpeted the company's stock. This resulted in everyone in the kingdom having huge confidence in the company's stock. In May 1719, when the company's shares were listed, the share price was still 500 livres. On August 1 of that year, the stock price increased more than five times. By August 30, the stock price exceeded the 4,000 mark.

And this surge lasted for 13 months. At its peak, the Mississippi company's stock price was more than twenty times its listing price.

But when the sense of crisis hit, people whose confidence was shaken began to sell their stocks.

What happened next was as irreversible as an avalanche. The stock price of the Mississippi Company plummeted for thirteen months, and the wealth of the entire kingdom evaporated like the last snow of spring.

This incident greatly damaged the financial credit of the kingdom's court. At that time, the king's chief accountant, John Law, was a rare banker genius. With the magical skill of alchemy, he surpassed the gold standard system created by Isaac Newton and established the world's first credit currency system guaranteed by the state in the kingdom.

However, no matter how this little genius used his skills, he could not save the kingdom, or to be precise, the collapse of the royal family's financial credit.

Xiang Shan looked at Bernard and waved his hands in front of him unconsciously: "Lao Di, let me tell you this... I will pay you a salary, but it does not include letting you fool me, okay?"

Bernard Dubois' expression remained unchanged: "Just chatting about historical topics."

"But you are obviously biased in your choice of arguments." Xiang Shan shrugged: "Although the kingdom does not respect economic laws at all, the Brita Empire across the sea from it is not much better. In 1720, ah Just one year after the 1719 you mentioned, a worse 'South Sea Bubble' occurred in the Britan Empire. In order to get rid of the huge national debt, the Britan Empire blew an even bigger bubble domestically. .”

Bernard nodded: "I didn't expect you to be so familiar with historical topics."

"That's not true." Xiang Shan nodded his glasses: "It's just that I can skillfully use external thinking organs. So even if I don't know anything about history, I can still look for information on the Internet temporarily."

Bernard smiled: "Gee, for an old man like me, this is really an evil machine - it makes all the experience advantages I have over young people disappear. Having said that, retrieval is so easy. Something about that?”

"Ah, that's not the case. But as a scientist, I am somewhat familiar with the life of Sir Isaac Newton. I probably remember his experience of losing money in the stock market again. Sir Isaac scolded me, 'I can calculate the movement of celestial bodies, but I can't Human madness cannot be calculated'."

Isaac Newton is world-famous as a physicist and mathematician. But that's just part of his life. This talented man was also a theologian and was very knowledgeable about the textual research of the Bible. He also served as the director of the mint and contributed to the "gold standard" system in financial history.

This is not the plot of "a stupid young scholar entering the stock market".

However, at that time, everyone in the Brita Empire seemed to be going crazy. In early 1720, a colonial company in the Britan Empire called the "South Sea Company" reached a deal with the Imperial Parliament. The company subscribed for a large amount of national bonds, and the empire reciprocated and gave the company many operating privileges.

In short, it is almost a replica of what happened on the other side of the continent last year. A large amount of money poured into the company, causing the stock price to skyrocket, and then the bubble burst.

"If we want to say it was bad... well, from the perspective of financial history, most scholars think that the South Sea Bubble might be a bit worse. If empires and kingdoms are worse, empires are obviously better."

"The reason why the Britan Empire was able to overwhelm the Kingdom of France in the subsequent campaign was obviously because... first of all, John Kaye was an imperialist; secondly, James Hargreaves was an imperialist; and then, James Watt was an Imperial man; and finally, George Stephenson was an Imperial man. That’s it.”

John Kaye, inventor of the flying shuttle. James Hargreaves, inventor of the jenny loom. James Watt, inventor of the steam engine. George Stephenson, inventor of the steam train.

These key inventions kicked off the first industrial revolution in the Britan Empire.

As a result, the Britan Empire became a huge empire that "the sun never sets on its land."

Bernard smiled: "You mean, are you Watt?"

"Ah, maybe I am George Stephenson?" Xiangshan smiled: "Yawgmoth or Anatole are more qualified to be 'Watt' than anyone else."

"'Finance' is something that exists 'intersubjectively' after all. The principles of thermodynamics and mechanics contained in the 'steam engine' are closer to 'objective laws'. I think the latter is still closer than the former. Powerful."

At this time, the intercom in the car was turned on again, and the assistant said: "Mr. Xiang, Mr. Dubois, the park is almost here."

Then, the intercom turns off.

In the car, the two looked at each other for a few seconds.

"Although I can probably understand that those of you in management positions also have certain demands and have your own opinions on corporate development. But here, please don't use such words. To me, this is a minus point. "Xiang Shan said: "'We' believe that this is the right track. If you think this development direction has no future... Tsk, I don't want to say anything too hurtful to friendship. Do you understand?"

A natural smile appeared on Bernard's wrinkled face: "I can't jump off the bus at this time, boss. I really firmly believe that you can become the 'Watt' of the new era. Only by following you can we develop in the next wave of industrial revolution." It’s a big fortune.”

Xiangshan sighed and looked out the window.

This is the "Transhumanist High-tech Park" located in the DX District. It was officially built the year before last and officially put into use last year. It has only completed the first phase of construction so far. The main users here are the R\u0026D institutions owned by Xiangshan and his friends, as well as the supporting companies of these R\u0026D institutions.

In addition, with the help of local scholars such as Xiang Shan and Chen Feng, the park has also established deep ties with Qingbei and other universities.

Of course, the most important thing is the items inside it.

The whole world knows that within this park, projects with the two themes of "human prosthetics" and "medical genetic modification" are being developed. Over the years, the place has become something of a geek mecca. Even if the core part of the park is off-limits, there are still technocrats from all over the world who come here to be reincarnated.

It’s just that after nightfall, the most frequent visitors are Internet celebrities who broadcast live broadcasts.

These people wear clothes with LEDs and say something into their phones.

Bernard looked out the window with great interest: "Let's see if there are any attractive girls this time - but these people are really weird. In their eyes, does putting LED lights on clothes count as 'cyberpunk'?" "

"Who knows."

Xiang Shan muttered. He was still thinking about Bernard's attitude just now.

From a personal perspective, Lao Di is a good person, philanthropic, compassionate and tolerant. He is one of the few professional managers who can tolerate various radical tendencies within the Xiangshan team - after all, conservatives in this industry can Too common.

However, his business philosophy has nothing to do with his personal morality. As an operator, Lao Di is just a "personalized capital" - the manager's professional ethics requires him to achieve "expansion" for the entity of capital. Regardless of whether he is a good person or a bad person, as long as he runs a business according to the instinct of "capital", he is contributing to the "inequality" of the world.

Whether he is a good person or a bad person, in that position, he has no choice but to choose actions that are more beneficial to capital appreciation. Otherwise, "capital" will flow to others who can fulfill this responsibility.

——Is that just simple chat? Did he want to influence me in this subtle way? Or is it a statement?

——Among the managers, how many people hold this idea? Is there any intention to form a force?

Xiangshan has never been a very suitable person to think about such things. But he at least knew that what people like him researched would change human history. As developers of technologies, they have the responsibility to control the impact of these technologies.

The car stopped for a moment before a gate. After checking the documents, the person at the gate let me go. These people are veterans of elite military units. Some of these people are also secretly connected to Guoan. They ensured that no one else could enter the core park.

Soon, the commercial vehicle parked outside a ten-story building.

Push the door to the mountain and go out. Bernard waved to him: "Happy New Year's Eve, boss."

Xiang Shan nodded. After he stepped into the door, the VR glasses immediately displayed a group of "documents to be processed" in the upper left corner of his field of vision. Some of them even have a countdown behind them.

On the left side of the field of view, a small row of portraits is also revealed. These avatars are all "frequent contacts" that he often comes into contact with at work, currently have no important tasks, and are still in the park.

Xiangshan returned to his office with his computer bag under his arm. This office is also minimalist in style, without much decoration, and the desk is not made of common solid wood, but made of stainless steel.

Xiangshan turned on his computer and first sent a piece of code that he had written in his spare time to the laboratory so that the laboratory could arrange testing.