Thomas and his cousin Robert Gray are both Irish, and the brothers were two of the smallest of the Irish potato crisis that broke out in the 40s, when millions of people starved to death in Ireland and more than a million people immigrated to the United States. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

When they arrived in the United States, they survived, but all their relatives who remained in Ireland died, and at that time, they were only teenagers.

The two of them had no skills, no knowledge, they used to be ordinary peasant children, they could only grow potatoes, and they had no place in New York, where they moved, so they were willing to do anything, dared to do anything, and used all kinds of legal and illegal means, and when they were twenty years old, they accumulated a sum of money and bought a large forest in the new north of Binzhou.

They didn't buy the forest to sell wood, wood is not worth much in the United States, the American steam engine burns fine pine wood, and they bought this forest with the intention of developing farms.

They couldn't afford to hire anyone, and when they cut down a tree themselves, they found out that the land was full of stones, and they had been fooled, and it was a land that could not be cultivated at all.

They were once again left with nothing and were on the verge of collapse, when the war between China and England and France broke out, and they noticed that the price of tea in the New York market was getting louder, and some said that if anyone could find a way to buy tea at this time, he would surely be rich.

The two brothers remembered this sentence and came to China as a job for Qichang Foreign Company.

Nothing can stop a scholar's firm belief in becoming an official in the imperial examination, and nothing can stop the strong desire of two poor ghosts to soar.

This strong desire makes them like a steam engine full of coal, with infinite power.

This led to the fact that Thomas tried his best to meet Zhu Jinglun, hoping that Zhu Jinglun would allow them to enter the Chinese tea area to visit, but after Zhu Jinglun refused, the two broke into the tea area without permission, and finally Thomas was killed.

As the only relative, Robert's mood was very painful when his cousin, who had supported each other since childhood, died, but when he learned that the Chinese official said that out of humanity, he would be allowed the privilege of operating tea in China alone, he suddenly felt that his cousin's death was valuable, and even he felt that his cousin's life was the price of this permission, and all this was arranged by God.

He was suddenly less miserable, and once again he became full of desire for wealth, and once again he was full of infinite motivation.

Then with the help of Chinese officials, he found an old man in Xin'an's family surnamed Luo, and after kowtowing to the old man, suddenly he had an extra father, a godfather.

He understood very well, when the Chinese official told him, he didn't think about it, and agreed at once, because the Chinese official told him that if he wanted to own land in China, this was a necessary procedure, and he had to obtain a Chinese identity, and he had worshiped the Chinese godfather, and he had worshiped a large number of other ancestors he had never seen, and his name was written into that long family tree, and he became a person with a Chinese household registration, and then the government wrote his name into the yellow book, and at the same time sent him a white book as a proof, Robert, now surnamed Rowe, has the power to buy land in China, and he is the only American who has the power to buy land in China.

This privilege will bring him infinite wealth, he is sure of this.

But before it could bring him infinite wealth, he had to invest in it.

"Guys, look. This is my household registration, I have the right to buy land in China, in fact, I have purchased a large piece of land, I asked my country's botanists to see it, at least let me plant 100,000 acres of tea trees. So here comes your chance to make a fortune. For only ten taels, you can buy a share of the tea plantation, Thomas Gray Plantation, you are welcome to invest. ”

At the Xin'an Commodity Exchange, Robert Gray loudly advertised his business.

But retail businessmen like him are very hesitant.

"How many shares are you going to raise?"

There are retail dealers who shout that the number of shares issued determines the price of the shares.

Robert shouted, "I have issued a total of 70,000 shares, which is 70% of the tea plantation. ”

Many retail businessmen laughed, feeling that Robert was too self-conscious, which was equivalent to him valuing a white book of Chinese household registration in his hand at 300,000 taels.

Robert was serious: "Just laugh, the opportunity to get rich is in front of you, and if you don't grasp it yourself, there will be a time when you regret it in the future." To tell you the truth, Qichang Foreign Bank has already bought 10,000 shares, which means that you can only buy 60,000 shares at most. ”

Qichang gave him 100,000 taels, Robert gave all the money to Gaoming County, and the county order of this county assigned him the barren mountains that no one in the Wukeng Mountains, and even the area could not be measured, so he drew from the inhabited rivers under the mountains, and all the barren mountains where no one was allowed to open up the wasteland, and after the fields were reclaimed, as long as he could pay grain according to the mu, he would measure and issue the title deed.

As for why this county order dares to let him a foreigner go to open up the wasteland, according to the Chinese, he is now settled in Xin'an, and he is now considered a Daqing citizen, but the more important reason is that Zhu Jinglun of Xin'an Zhi County is willing to give him a guarantee, he took Zhu Jinglun's guarantee book and a letter to Gaoming County, and offered a lot of silver, Gaoming County Order does not have to bear responsibility, and can get such a large amount of wealth for nothing, so he is happy to let him go to open up the wasteland, anyway, those barren mountains have been abandoned for hundreds of years, except that there were Yao people who have opened it, That is, the Hakka people have opened the mountain, but they have only opened a very small part, and the vast majority of them are still barren.

After Robert got this permission, he forcibly dragged the botanist John and several engineers to wander around the mountains for half a month, John told him that the area was very suitable for planting tea trees, and the engineers told him that if he could reclaim all the mountain land, it would be more than 100,000 acres.

Twenty years after the five-mouth trade, the price of tea in China has been greatly reduced, from more than 30 taels in the past to about 20 taels, and the price of 18 taels in the first two years has been as low as 18 taels and one quintal.

Even at this price, Robert has reason to believe that he can make a lot of money, cancel all intermediate links, build a factory directly in the tea garden for processing, and then organize transportation to the port transaction by himself, and the profit can be more than half, if it is packaged, the profit can be higher.

China's one acre of tea plantations often produce more than one quintal, so if he can open 100,000 acres of tea plantations, he can get a profit of 100,000 taels a year, so why can't this tea garden be worth 1 million taels, and why is his privilege not worth 300,000 taels?

As soon as he thought of the valuation he gave himself, even Qichang Foreign Bank accepted it, and these poor ghosts did not agree, which made Robert despise them very much, and deserved them to be poor.

"Can you sell me a hundred shares?"

That's when someone spoke.

Robert laughed, "Of course you can!" ”

"But I have a request, can I be a partner, I can raise more funds!"

Robert looked at this man, and to be honest, he didn't plan to hire a partner, he only had one partner, and that was the dead Thomas, and he didn't believe anyone except Thomas.

The reason why he chose to find financing from these retail merchants on the exchange, instead of letting go of his hands and feet to find those ocean houses, was that he didn't want the tea plantation that Thomas bought his life to be controlled in the end, and he grew up in New York and knew too well the practices of those capital predators.

But financing on the exchange is not smooth, after all, this is just an oriental commodity exchange, and the New York stock exchange can not be compared, the difference is not the scale, but the understanding of people, people who come here only want to make quick money, no one has the patience to put money in one place and wait for ten years to earn, and in New York, although there are more people who want to make quick money, but they can sell at will, stocks are the same as the dollar, are wealth.

"Can we go outside and talk?"

The man saw that Robert was hesitating and suggested.

Robert thought about it for a moment and decided to listen to this man's advice.

This person introduced him as an accountant, a Dutchman, and his name was Ho Shiwen.

The person who came was very polite, apparently well-educated, and after talking for a while, Robert told He Shiwen that he planned to raise 700,000 taels and hire 30,000 people to develop tea plantations. He wanted to open the tea plantations as quickly as possible, and then ask the local government to issue him a title deed, so as to legally own the land.

The local people have low wages, 5 cents a day can hire a strong laborer, women only need 3 cents, children and the elderly, give 2 cents, or even just give a meal, now the exchange rate is 160 cents for 1 tael of silver, a year for more than 330,000 taels of silver. But a tea plantation takes at least three years to start producing tea, which means that he has to spend at least three years, of which 30,000 people are hired in the first year, 20,000 yuan in the second year, and 10,000 people in the third year to help him take care of it every day.

In addition to labor, he also needs to build roads, as well as build a tea factory, the cost of mountain roads is very high, he plans to build a hardened road from the mountain to the river below, a hardened road that can allow horse-drawn carriages to pass, the scale of the tea factory can not be small, he also plans to collect tea from the surrounding Chinese tea plantations, and then process, and the surrounding Chinese tea plantations also have tens of thousands of acres.

All in all, it will end up being about one million taels.

But He Shiwen told him: "No, no, no, you only need to raise 500,000 yuan at most." ”

The huge gap surprised Robert: "You're not kidding, are you?" ”

He Shiwen said with a smile: "You only need to pay the salary of the first year, set up a tea garden and a tea factory, and in the second year, you can use these assets as collateral to sell bonds, and in the third year, you can recoup the cost in advance by pre-selling the tea." ”

He Shiwen directly said that Robert was stupid, he only knew that the fat and big-eared bankers in New York were very shrewd, but he didn't expect He Shiwen, a Dutchman, to be equally shrewd.

A strange thought popped through his head: "Are you Jewish?" ”

He Shiwen did not deny it, nor did he admit it, but said: "Is this important, I can help you save half of the shares, I think I have the value of being your partner." ”

Robert said, "Yes, you're right! Still, you're definitely Jewish, and of course, I'm just curious. (To be continued.) )