In fact, after the end of the war, the economy was generally not very good. Many industries have been affected by the lack of demand. However, there is a peculiarity of this thing, that is, it can never be honestly idle and sleep. At any given time, money will go looking for a way out that will make a lot of money, and if it can't find it, it will look for a way to commit suicide.

The so-called path to suicide refers to all kinds of speculation. Marx once sharply sarcastically said that there is one thing that the capitalists cannot change is like another member of the family that some of the Virgin is particularly fond of, and that is that every once in a while, they will try to get a direct profit by crossing the intermediate production links. One of the most typical expressions is to play with concepts, to stir up things that have no value at all, or are not so valuable at all.

For example, as early as 1636 (the Europeans were cows, and at that time we were still in the Dameng Dynasty, and the Europeans played this), the Dutch used tulips to play the first recorded financial bubble in history. At that time in the Netherlands, some tulip treasures were sold for unusually high prices, and the wealthy competed to display the latest and rarest varieties in their gardens. By the early 30s of the 17th century, the fashion was in a classic speculative frenzy. Tulips are no longer bought for their intrinsic value or for ornamental purposes, but with the expectation that their price will rise indefinitely and make a profit. In 1635, a tulip variety called chi1der was sold for 1,615 florins (f1orins, the Dutch currency). If you want to figure out what such a sum of money was worth in the Dutch economy in the early 17th century, you only need to know that 4 bulls (equivalent to a trailer) cost 48o florins, and 1ooo pounds (about 454 kilograms) of cheese also cost 12o florins. However, the price of tulips continued to rise, and the following year, a rare variety of tulips (there were only two in the whole of the Netherlands at the time) was sold for 46oo florins, in addition to which the buyer had to pay an additional fee for a brand new carriage, two grey horses and a complete set of harness.

In fact, everyone knows that this flowering garlic is not worth that much at all, and all those who are willing to pay such a high price are fools. But they all believe that everything will be scarce in this world, but fools will never be scarce, although I am stupid enough to buy such a flowering garlic at such a high price, but I believe that I can always find a fool who is more stupid than me, and then sell it to him at a higher price. This is the foolish psychology in the financial bubble. And you can see its shadow in various financial bubbles since then. Even until the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Chinese still played various stories of Junzi Lan and Chinese Lan.

Of course, there will always be a time when this bubble will burst, and it will get higher and higher until it is high enough that no fool can catch the plate, or after some adult with ulterior motives pretends to be a child and shouts "The king has nothing to wear", there will be a wild fall, and then, a large amount of money will complete the suicide in such a wild fall and flow into the pockets of individual guys.

Nowadays, all kinds of industries are not very profitable, so as long as there is a slight sign of good in a certain industry, well, that large pile of hot money that can't find a way out, it will definitely rush to the top and fry this industry as a flowering garlic. And now, well, the oil extraction industry, is such a flowering garlic.

Think about it, it's going to have to dig a hole in the ground, and then endless wealth will automatically come out of the ground, and that's pretty much it......

"Dorothea, do you know why John suddenly raised the purchase price of oil and began to buy oil in large quantities at fourteen dollars a barrel?" Scrooge is continuing his "Dorothea Cultivation Project".

"Now the use of oil is limited to kerosene for lighting lamps and lubricating oil for machine qì, well, maybe asphalt or something, in short, the amount of this thing is enough. It's not worth so much money at all. Dorothea bit the tip of her pencil and said, "The last time I heard you negotiate with Mr. Rockefeller, it was the negotiation when you drove the steamroller and told people that I still have a vacant seat above me and you can't get up." Now, the goal of his actions must be to crush them with a roller, that is, he wants to bankrupt those guys or be acquired by him at a low price. That's certainly his goal! ”

"Very good, keep deducing!" Scrooge encouraged her.

"He's going to raise the price, and then the wells are going to go on a production spree, and then as long as you have enough money in place, you can raise the price again, and then, well, somebody thinks it's going to make money by hoarding oil, and then somebody else is going to join in. Then the price of oil will be higher and higher. At that time, we will throw out the oil in our hands, and then, the whole market price will fall, and at that time, everyone who has oil in their hands will worry about whether the oil will be smashed in their hands, and they will compete to sell the oil as quickly as possible, so that the price will fall faster, and this will stimulate them to sell the oil faster. Then the whole price will collapse. And during this period, those oil wells must have increased their production, and they will definitely store a lot of oil to wait for the price to rise, and with the collapse, all these things will not be sold, and then, what can they do but sell the oil fields quickly? Am I right? Dorothea asked.

"It's basically good, but you forgot about the situation of other refineries." Scrooge continued to lead.

"Well, when the price of oil is soaring, as long as we keep the price of kerosene and lubricants, these refineries will have no profit at all, and they will be overwhelmed by the suppression, so if we do it, we will have to sell the factories to us immediately. It's just that...... It's just that we're going to make a lot of people go bankrupt, is it really good? Dorothea was glad to say it earlier, but somehow, suddenly that superfluous view of right and wrong came back to life. Dorothea shook her head, as if trying to shake the superfluous view of right and wrong out of her head. Then he said a little to himself:

"It's a shame not to make so much money...... Anyway, it's a matter of time before they are crushed, and sooner they go bankrupt and get back up sooner. Besides, it's all a group of northerners, and if you pit it, you will be pitted. Besides, it's us who dig the pit, but it's themselves who jump down, so what do we care? That's right, well, that's what it looks like! ”

……

"I heard that the boss is going to drill an oil well again?" An oil worker asks another worker.

"Yes, William, haven't you heard? Recently, Standard Oil has raised the purchase price of crude oil to $16 a barrel! Now this thing is making money. The boss only has four wells in his hands now, where is the output enough? So isn't it normal to dig more wells? The worker replied.

"But I see that there are still a lot of them, have they been sold? Are they all hoarded in the oil storage tanks over there? ”

"Then who knows? Maybe the boss thinks that oil prices can continue to rise. ”

……

Loyle drove a donkey cart with three barrels of crude oil to his home.

"Emma, come out and help me get this crude oil down." Unloading the donkey, Loyle shouted to his wife.

"What are you buying these things for?" His wife was puzzled and asked, "What's the use of this thing?" And buy so much? ”

"You women just don't know." "You don't know, the price of this thing has been going up like crazy lately!" The day before yesterday it was $15 a barrel, and now it has risen to $17 a barrel! According to this increase method, these three barrels of oil can rise by $9 every two days! It's so much better than going out to work! Okay, stop talking nonsense, help me get my things down! ”

Together, the couple lifted a bucket of oil, placed it on the ground, and then prepared to lift a second bucket. At this time, they saw that their neighbor Carl Sr. had also returned with a donkey cart with four barrels of oil on it.

"Hey, Carl, where did you get that? How much is a barrel? Neuer shouted.

"Mr. Hurd's well, which took a great deal of effort to get it, is seventeen dollars and five cents a barrel." Old Carl replied proudly, "Even if I started quickly, the boy in the back would have risen to seventeen dollars and ten cents!" ”

"If it goes up like this, it won't be long before you have the money to look at your son's legs." "I know Dr. Harker, who runs an orthopedic clinic in Lancaster and has good skills," Neuer said. ”

"Thank you, but if it goes up like this, I can take him to a big hospital instead of going to a private clinic. lest someone else have their legs crooked. Old Karl laughed, "If he makes too much, I'll take him to Germany to see an orthopedic!" ”

Karl Sr. was a German immigrant, and he always had an unjustified trust in German medical skills.

After talking to old Karl, Neuer continued to remove the oil drums with his wife and carefully discharged them.

"Where to put it? Is it okay in the yard? Emma asked.

"How's that going to work! Now I don't know how many people want to buy this and can't buy it. Put it in the yard, can you sleep? Neuer asked.

"Then why don't we move it inside the house and put it next to our bed, so safe!" Emma said again.

Neuer thought for a moment and said, "That's it, put it next to our bed." Well, by the way, load that old-fashioned musket we have and put it next to the bed! Hey...... In just a little while, it went up by ten cents, and it won't be long before we can earn us back a donkey. ”

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