After a long day of negotiations, Greystone and the elder Rockefeller finally came to an agreement: Greystone promised that in the future, when the shipbuilding industry collapsed, Rockefeller would be free to buy those shipbuilding companies. But he had to use his shipyards as capital to join the McDonalds' family-led cross-controlled shipbuilding alliance. Operationally, these shipyards were directly managed by the Rockefeller family and had a certain degree of autonomy, but not to the detriment of the interests of the Alliance.

After the basic intention is reached, the relevant details will naturally be handled by others. So Greystone said goodbye to Rockefeller and prepared to go back and get some rest. By this time, it was already approaching evening, and it was already past dinner time. Rockefeller didn't leave Greystone to eat, because he knew that the level of food at home would make Greystone feel that he was being punished. When it comes to food, MacDonald's second generation almost always inherited Scrooge's foodie tradition. Scrooge's life was not simple, at least not by Rockefeller's standards, but Rockefeller also admitted that Scrooge's life was not a luxury if it was not a luxury by Morgan's standards, or even by Morgan's standards, just by his own brother's standards. In a way, however, Scrooge is a luxury, even by Morgan's standards. That's in terms of eating.

Scrooge has a very luxurious team of chefs in Duckburg, including six French chefs, five Italian chefs, and a full thirty Chinese chefs. Most of these chefs are said to have served in high-end hotels, while some of the Chinese chefs are said to have even come from the Manchu court. Rockefeller heard rumors that there was a time when Scrooge and his bodyguard Chen Guang chatted about all kinds of food, but Chen Guang may have been homesick and severely denounced American food, and he bragged about the overlord meal he ate in a restaurant in a certain city when he was in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which attracted Scrooge's attention, and later, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army entered the city of Beijing, and in the chaos, it is said that a large number of famous Chinese chefs have disappeared. And a lot of them went to Scrooge.

As a result, the McDonald family guys were all made extremely picky by Scrooge when it came to eating. Therefore, the simple white bread and milk in Rockefeller's house, plus a few slices of sausage that I don't know if it is a special sausage, it is estimated that Greystone will not be able to eat it. The MacDonald guys would often be hungry for hours rather than eat something like this. To be honest, Rockefeller had eaten the things in Scrooge's house, especially the odd ones, a few times, but he didn't find them alluring at all. Therefore, the world of foodies is not something that normal humans can understand.

Greystone came out of the Rockefeller's house, half-lying in the comfortable back seat of Lincoln's car with his eyes closed. The day's negotiations made him feel a little tired, however, in retrospect, Mr. Rockefeller was still in good spirits, and did not seem to feel tired at all, which could not but make Greystone feel admired.

……

Two days later, Fitch Ratings released a new monthly economic report, in which Fitch said that based on the results of their analysis based on the information they had obtained, the three-year recession should be coming to an end, and predicted that a new era of prosperity centered on the oil industry could be in a few months. At the end of this month's report, he wrote:

"All kinds of figures, including the number of non-performing bank liabilities and the purchasing index of various companies, have improved somewhat, and they have either stopped the continuous recession or have rebounded slightly. In short, we have reason to believe that the dark tunnel has come to an end, and we have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. ”

However, the effect of this report is not obvious, although Fitch Rating's report has a very high reputation and appeal in the economic community, but in the past few years, it is not uncommon for various economic indicators like this to improve, and many people at that time felt that the tunnel had reached the end and that there was a light ahead. However, the end result is that the light at the mouth of the tunnel is not really the mouth of the tunnel, but probably just a ghost fire shining. Some impatient guys, thinking that this was an opportunity, hurriedly shouted "Hands are fast, hands are slow", and then fell headlong into the trap dug by others, and fell to pieces.

There was also a period of time, which was as long as a month or two, and the economy was getting better, as if the train had left the tunnel and entered the sunny spring, however, before the two months were over, suddenly the wind and clouds suddenly changed, just like taking a train through the Rocky Mountains, just out of a tunnel, before I had time to look at the scenery next to it, the train rushed into the next section of longer and darker tunnel.

Therefore, today, there is an extreme lack of confidence in the market, and most people have chosen to continue to wait and see at this time.

However, the economic situation does seem to be improving. And more good news is also coming, although every good news, almost become an opportunity for some people to cut the meat from the stock market to stop losses, resulting in several sharp rises and falls in the stock market, but the overall situation has indeed improved. For example, the oil industry, which is mentioned in Fitch's report, has begun to see positive growth, albeit by a modest amount, in the number of workers employed. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of workers employed in some of the relevant industries. According to social statistics released by the Associated Press, for the first time in three months, the unemployment rate in the United States has fallen overall, and such a situation has never occurred in the previous few fake recoveries or temporary recoveries.

Another month passed, and more good news came. In distant China, the rebellious Southern Army, backed by Cuban volunteers, had repelled forces loyal to the Qing government two months earlier and proclaimed a republican state called the "Republic of China." The Manchus had to use Yuan Shikai to suppress them, and as a result, Yuan Shikai used the forces in his hands to put pressure on the south on the one hand, and on the other hand, he used the south to force the Manchu emperor to abdicate. In the end, the Chinese finally reached a compromise, the Qing emperor announced his abdication, the Republic of China government announced that the Qing imperial family was favored, and Yuan Shikai became the president of the Republic of China. The Republic of China, on the other hand, became a separate republic de jure and in practice more of a confederation than a federation. The country is essentially divided into two parts, the north and the south, which are hostile to each other, and in the south, which is divided into several smaller pieces. In order to gain more support and overwhelm their opponents, these small states have shown goodwill to the great powers, for example, the Americans have now gained the right to open mines, establish businesses, build railroads in many parts of the South, and have become completely free to do business. New markets have also been opened.

The Chinese market was not opened to the United States alone, because according to the treaties reached between the Qing government and the great powers, all the great powers received the most-favored-nation treatment in China, that is, after one great power country obtained any privileges in China, other countries would automatically receive such privileges. But in some industrial sectors, there are few strong competitors for American products, such as petroleum products.

It was at this time that news came that oil had been discovered in the Philippines, and Mr. Rockefeller immediately announced that he would build an oil refinery in the Philippines in order to sell petroleum products to the Chinese market nearby.

The news was seen as a sign that the economy was truly recovering, and the investment market began to heat up slowly, with oil-related industries receiving financial support first. Industries such as steel and machine building benefited from the large amount of machinery needed to extract oil in the Philippines, and petroleum products had to be transported by sea to reach new markets, so Mr. Rockefeller's enterprises began bidding for the manufacture of new vessels dedicated to the transportation of petroleum products. This has benefited the shipbuilding industry.

Spurred on by such a series of good news, investors who had been cowering gradually emboldened and gradually began to believe that a real recovery has arrived.

And the news of the improvement of the North American economy also provided more confidence to Europe, and this month, a U.S. oil exploration team hired by Tsarist Russia discovered high-yield oil fields in the Caucasus, and the Tsarist government began to attract investment for development, and American oil companies immediately took the lead in winning several oil wells.

The Caucasus was inaccessible, and the export of oil became a problem, and the Russians made plans to build a heavy-haul railway to Kashmir for transporting oil, and then ship it to European countries by ship. This project made the railroads and shipbuilding in Europe also heat up.

……

University of Cleveland Laboratory - Marine Transportation Design Laboratory. This is a laboratory specializing in the study of various transport vessels. Every year, the McDonald consortium invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in the lab. On this day, the laboratory welcomed two distinguished guests, Scrooge MacDonald and Morgan.

"Scrooge, what about the boat you let me see?" Like Scrooge's love of food, Morgan has a special penchant for boats, which is not limited to yachts and cruise ships, but includes all kinds of boats. What's more, Scrooge touted him that it would be a newly-designed supership that would make all other oil carriers obsolete at once, and as a brilliant businessman, Morgan naturally understood the business opportunities represented by such a ship.