Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

After spending a week at Bell Labs, Bao Zixuan was faced with both money and dreams. Yule Engel joined Heiyun Mobile Phone Company with his technical team. He also serves as the chief engineer of the mobile phone R\u0026D department, and his assistants have also made appropriate arrangements.

At the same time, Bao Zixuan also purchased UNIX operating systems and charge-coupled components from Bell Labs for patent licensing of barcode readers, cameras, scanners, copiers and other products. These technologies are now relatively common technologies on the market, so they are not very expensive. However, anyone who wants to produce must purchase a patent from Bell Labs. This laboratory is so powerful, and its foundation is so profound that there is no limit to it.

After arranging the research and development work on mobile phones, Bao Zixuan came to New York again. The furlough for Blackstone Fund employees has ended, and a new round of feast is about to begin. This time he's going after silver and gold, and it's the best opportunity in the next few decades.

Before 1980, the Hunter family was once among the richest families in the world; today its status has declined, but it still cannot be underestimated. The founder of this family, H.L. Hunter was born in rural Illinois in 1889, the youngest child in his family. His parents ran a farm and his family was relatively wealthy, but he had not received formal education since he was a child. In 1912, the 23-year-old Hunter began operating a cotton plantation in Arkansas; World War I brought rising prices of agricultural products, and Hunter made his first pot of gold.

In 1957, Fortune magazine estimated that H.L. Hunter had a fortune of $400 million to $700 million and was one of the eight richest people in the United States at the time. The second-generation Hunter family members did not sit back and enjoy their gains, but looked for new investment opportunities everywhere: Nelson-Hunt was committed to developing Libyan oil fields, but later political turmoil in Libya led to the confiscation of the oil fields, and potential investment losses may be as high as US$4 billion; Card Rowling Hunt opened a hotel and hotel group and served as chairman; Rama Hunt participated in the formation of the North American Football League and the North American Football League, and named the annual football finals the "Super Bowl" ; Swanney-Hunter once served as the U.S. Ambassador to Austria and taught at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. It can be said that the Hunter family’s influence on American politics and economy has penetrated into the lives of most people.

Soybeans were one of the most important export commodities of the United States in the early 1970s. It is not only widely used in feed and edible oil production, but also on American tables. In the summer of 1973, soaring demand for soybeans even led to a shortage of soybeans, and the government was forced to suspend soybean exports—a very rare treatment for an agricultural product that is not a staple food. Everyone in government and companies is talking about soybeans. Since this product is so popular and in such short supply, wouldn't it be a perfect target?

As a result, Nelson Hunter began to use the power of the entire family to speculate in soybeans. Soon, he will have his first confrontation with the U.S. government, and this confrontation is just a preview of the 1980 silver crisis.

In 1973, Nelson Hunter began to buy silver spot in the Middle East and also bought silver futures in the futures markets of New York and Chicago. This decision was very strategic. The Hunter family seized the last calm moment before the price of silver rose and established a large position at the bottom. In December 1973, the Hunter family had purchased $20 million worth of silver spot and 35 million ounces of silver futures at a cost of $2.90 per ounce, making them one of the largest silver holders in the world. .

In the summer of 1979, Nelson Hunter finally launched a general attack. He wants to give the slowly rising price of silver a final push, causing it to blow out like gold. One of the largest tragedies in the history of commodity futures has finally officially begun.

In the summer of 1979, the duel between the Hunter family and silver traders around the world began. Nelson Hunter, through the International Metals Investment Company he controls, placed a cumulative 40 million ounces of buy orders on the New York and Chicago futures exchanges. "International Metal Investment Company" actually has only two groups of shareholders, the first group is the Hunter family, and the second group is Saudi princes and wealthy people. If you can't understand the nature of this investment company, you can think about the ownership structure of "Blackstone" - a greedy board of directors plus a foreign exchange investor from a developing country. This was the routine of the "International Metal Investment Company" back then.

Nelson Hunter and his brother William Hunter completed purchase orders through many Wall Street brokers, including large investment banks such as Shearson and Bache. People found that there was a huge amount of buying in the market, and the price of silver quickly rose from $6 to $11, but no one knew who was buying. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigated trading records and found that most of the buy orders came from "International Metals Investment Corporation", a company registered in Bermuda. After closer investigation, the fox tail of the Hunter family was finally revealed. Soon, every trader in New York and Chicago knew that the Hunter family was the backstage boss of the "International Metal Investment Company". This family is one of the richest families in the world!

Interestingly, when the news spread that the Hunter family was manipulating silver, the price of silver continued to soar, and many small speculators flooded into the market. The reason is simple. Since the Hunter family is "making a banker" for silver, small speculators should of course choose to "follow the banker". Although it is very dangerous, there is a chance to make a fortune. As speculators continued to pour in, the price of silver became increasingly crazy - rising from US$11 to US$20, then US$30, and by the end of 1979, it simply exceeded US$40! The price ratio between gold and silver fell to about 12 times, a record low. The futures market has completely lost its grip on silver. When will the rise end?

Large futures traders in Chicago and New York are very worried about the Hunt family's monopolistic behavior. At the end of 1979, the Hunter family controlled 53% of the New York Mercantile Exchange’s silver futures contracts and 69% of the Chicago Board of Trade’s silver futures contracts, holding a total of 120 million ounces of spot and 50 million ounces of futures—not including Those Saudi Arabian investors hold silver in their own personal names. At that time, the global silver trading volume was only about 20 million ounces per year, and the Hunter family had cut off the circulation channels of silver! The largest grain trader in the Chicago Board of Trade said a very classic saying: "We would rather let the BY market fail than see it be monopolized." It seems that the Hunter family has offended the public, and large traders in the United States Already stood on their opposite side.

Silver producers around the world were very excited about this. They quickly launched plans to find new silver mines, and many silver mines that had been closed were reopened. Ordinary residents in the United States and Europe were also pleasantly surprised by the rise in silver prices. They rummaged through boxes and cabinets to find ancestral silver tea sets and decorations. All items with silver as raw materials were sent for smelting without hesitation to make standard silver. Blocks are sold on the market. As a result, the supply of silver on the market increased, and the Hunter family's efforts to monopolize the price of silver were challenged. Although Nelson Hunter tried his best to keep buying, he was already a little overwhelmed - no matter how huge the Hunter family's wealth was, it was still a bit over the top to be the enemy of the whole world.

Moreover, the Hunter family's biggest enemy has not yet taken action, and this enemy is the US government. The U.S. government holds large amounts of silver, including silver bullion used for the Federal Reserve and silver coins recovered after early issuance, which may total tens of millions of ounces. Central banks around the world also hold large amounts of silver reserves. Although no central bank can hold more silver than the Hunter family, as long as they jointly intervene in the market, the Hunter family will surely die without a burial place.

By January 1980, the Hunter family had achieved great results - the price of silver had risen to US$48 and was climbing towards US$50; most of the short traders who were enemies of the Hunter family had already accepted their losses and exited the market. No one dares to short sell on a large scale anymore. However, the Hunter family also feels heavy pressure, because the price of silver is too high, and it is difficult for the capital held by the Hunter family to continue to increase the price. In order to maintain its monopoly on the BY market, Nelson-Hunter was forced to borrow high-interest loans from several major banks in the United States, with the average interest rate as high as 19%. Several Wall Street investment banks also lent large amounts of money to the Hunter family, allowing them to continue playing the game of market manipulation for the time being.

According to investigations by the U.S. Commodity and Exchange Commission, in the winter of 1979, the total value of silver futures contracts held by the Hunter family had reached US$3 billion; by January 1980, its total value may have exceeded US$5 billion! In more than two months from the end of 1979 to the beginning of 1980, the Hunter family borrowed tens of millions of dollars from major U.S. banks and more than $200 million from Wall Street brokers, becoming almost the largest borrower in the United States and even the world. . It costs them millions of dollars every month just to pay interest, and manipulating silver has become a money-burning game, even more expensive than war.