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Volume III: Aftermath 3: Financial Depression

The stock market is a barometer of the political economy, on the one hand, it will reflect the latest information in economic activities, on the other hand, its ups and downs will also affect future economic activities, and it is the fastest to respond to important information.

The post-World War I recession in the United States was first manifested on Wall Street, where the stock market has been declining and capital has been withdrawn from the stock market since the news of the victory in Europe.

Negotiations in Europe did not go well, the Fourteen Points on which the Americans had high hopes were castrated, and the Americans found that they were not yet saviors, and that the markets of the European powers they coveted did not seem to be achieved overnight.

Dow Jones & Co. has always reported dismal indexes, and Moody's-Fitch has downgraded the credit ratings of most companies.

After the end of the war, Moody's-Fitch began to conduct risk assessments of areas where American capital was about to enter such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, and launched a national sovereignty assessment business. This was a major breakthrough for Moody's-Fitch in credit rating, and while it didn't get much attention at first, it will become more unshakable over time.

The William consortium withdrew most of its money from the stock market before the end of the war, so the losses were not significant. It's only the small investors who are the ones who are latecomer, but if they can hold on, the stocks they hold in a few years will almost rise several times as much as they are now.

However, many people go with the flow, and when they see that the shape is not good, they also reluctantly sell the stocks they bought at a high price not long ago. Only those who have the discernment and great determination can stick to it, and laugh at the end.

Robles Securities took advantage of the decline in stock prices and slowly bought back some shares of Bethlehem and Stoney Foods. At the same time, some potential companies will be selected, and these investments are mainly concentrated in the electrical and automotive manufacturing industries.

Although the financial market is sluggish, it does not mean that Robles Securities is also in recession. New York is the financial center of the United States, there is no doubt about this, in addition to New York, there are other regional financial centers in the United States, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and other big cities are not small in the financial market, and enterprises in the region are also the first to consider financing from the local financial market, after all, Wall Street is really unattainable for most companies.

New financial companies are being established on Wall Street every day, and quite a few are failing. In general, most financial companies are in crisis, even precarious, waiting to be bought or bankrupt.

The same is true for financial markets in other large cities. This is a rare opportunity for Robles Securities, which has acquired two financial companies and laid off some of the hapless brokers, which has become much larger.

After testing its skills in New York, Robles Securities turned more attention to other financial markets, buying a financial company in Boston that was about to go bankrupt and turning it into the Boston branch of Robles Securities, which was an outpost in the financial markets of the northeastern United States.

Robles Securities' expansion in Western California was also smooth, with Wells Fargo's cooperation acquiring several financial companies with little effort, becoming the largest securities dealer on the Pacific Stock Exchange and the first choice for corporate financing in California.

Coupled with Wells Fargo's behind-the-scenes efforts, the Williams consortium has a decisive influence on California's financial markets. Situ Nan has always refused to allow Wells Fargo to participate in the stock securities business, showing himself as a commercial bank, just waiting for Robles Securities to expand into California.

After a modest wait, Situ Nan's expectations for Robles Securities finally came true in a small way.

Robles' expansion in Chicago is more challenging than it is casual in Boston and natural in San Francisco. As the world's largest agricultural futures trading market, Chicago's financial market is much larger than Boston and San Francisco, and the competition is fierce, second only to Wall Street in New York.

Chicago's financial activity is very active, with hundreds of millions of tons of agricultural products delivered annually through the Chicago Board of Trade, and in any case Robles Securities cannot afford to ignore this important territory.

Robles Securities began to start futures trading business in Chicago a few years ago, when Situ Nan invested in agriculture in California and Texas, which provided Robles with a lot of effective information, so the futures business of the Chicago branch has developed quite well in recent years.

Regrettably, the post-war depression in the United States was largely focused on agriculture, and all Chicago futures trading also cost a lot of investors, not including Robles.

Since you can fight your way through the fierce competition on Wall Street, it is not too difficult to find a place in the Chicago financial market. The agricultural downturn also severely affected futures trading in Chicago, which was a good thing for Robles Securities.

Robles Securities took the opportunity to launch a forced takeover of the Chicago Trust Company. With assets of more than 10 million yuan, the Chicago Trust Company is slightly larger than the Chicago branch of Robles Securities, and has a history of several decades in Chicago and has a wide reputation.

Robles Securities would have become one of the leading financial firms in the Great Lakes region if it had been in its pocket, and the Chicago Trust Company had not expected the war to end so quickly and had accidentally bought a multimillion-dollar six-month worth of meat futures from Stoney Agriculture.

Now that the war is over and the price of agricultural products has fallen dramatically, the Chicago Trust Company has had to buy the hundreds of thousands of livestock that Stoney Agriculture threw away like a hot potato when the settling was due.

Without war orders, there was an oversupply of meat products, the products were unsalable, and Chicago's meat producers were afraid to buy livestock on a large scale.

Now the price of meat has fallen sharply, and the livestock bought by the Chicago Trust Company at a high price has become a money-losing commodity.

Not only did they not make money, but they lost more than a million dollars, much more than they had earned during the war.

They didn't know that it was Robles Securities who was betting on them behind the scenes. The relationship between Robles Securities and Stoney Agriculture was well disguised and was not discovered by the other party, and everyone was optimistic about the meat market at that time, and it was normal for the Chicago Trust Company to be recruited, but it lost too badly this time, and accidentally became the mouth of Robles Securities.

The failure of the Chicago Trust Company's investment caused a chain reaction, first with little liquidity left, the company's stock price fell with the shape, and the bank continued to come to the door to collect debts.

The recession started with the banks, and after the war, the U.S. banking industry was in mourning, and bankruptcy became commonplace, with the exception of the Bank of California failure rate of 4%, the average failure rate of banks in the United States was 19%! Almost one out of every five banks goes bankrupt.

Most of these are small and medium-sized banks in the Midwest, and their customers are generally mainly farmers and small business owners, and it is not surprising that the agricultural sector is depressed, and these central banks have gone bankrupt on a large scale.

Rather than going bankrupt, the big banks are acting in their favor, and they can easily buy up the smaller ones that are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The bank that lent to the Chicago Trust Company is the Continental Illinois Company, one of the strongest banks in Chicago, along with four other banks: First Chicago Company, Harris Bank Company, Northern Trust Company, and Bank of America Corporation, as the top five banking companies in the Chicago consortium.

"Damn, all the bad luck feels like a piece!" A man in his fifties and sixties sat in his office with a bitter face, cursing incessantly.

He is the chairman and president of the Chicago Trust Company, Joe? Phidis, this company is the work of his life, but at this time he has to make difficult choices.

Just now, the representative of the mainland Illinois Company gave Phidis an ultimatum, and Fitice still remembers the arrogant appearance of the other party: "If the Chicago Trust Company can't repay the loan next month, then see you in court!" ”

"Fortunately, the other party doesn't know about the failure of the Chicago Trust Company's investment, and there is still a month to go, otherwise it will be even more troublesome!"

Fitice clutched his hair hard, his brow furrowed, and thought to himself: If he can't find a good way, he will bankrupt the Chicago Trust Company with a deficit of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the books.

"Chairman, there's a company representative outside who says he's going to see you—" The secretary walked in.

"No, say I'm not there." Phyedith waved his hand impatiently, thinking that maybe he was collecting debts again. More and more people came to collect the debt, and some bad rumors began to circulate in the company.

The secretary walked out with some concern, and after a while, he walked in again.

"What's the matter?" Phidis stared at the secretary sternly, with reproach in his eyes.

"The other party said that he was here to deliver money," the secretary continued to pluck up his courage after giving a careful look at Phidis, "and said that if you don't see him, just wait for bankruptcy!" ”

"What company is he from?" Phidice asked.

"Robles Securities," said the secretary.

"Alright! Let him in! Phyedith nodded.

"This office is good! It's a pity that it won't be yours soon! A man of twenty-seven or eighteen years old came in, his head slightly raised, and he made a smirk at Phidis's office, "Introduce yourself." Robles? Mellon, President of Robles Securities! ”

Robles Securities Company Phidis had heard of it, but he had no contact with it, and he was not familiar with it, but he was more curious about the identity of the somewhat proud man in front of him.

"You're from the Mellon family?" Phidice asked.

"Yes and no!" Robles smiled and thought: This Phidis knows a lot about American families!

"I have that last name, but I don't work for that last name. I represent Robles Securities, and now I am officially proposing to the Chicago Trust Company! Robles got straight to the point.

"Stop dreaming, young man!" Phidice said dismissively. I secretly complained in my heart: I just sent the mainland Illinois Company, and then there was a Robles Company, when did the Chicago Trust Company fall to the point where cats and dogs came to get involved.

"Huh. I'm not dreaming. I have acquired a 22% stake in the Chicago Trust Company and am now the second largest shareholder of the company. Robles laughed. In fact, he now has only 5% of the shares.

"Well, young man, you make an offer!" Phydis's attitude became stern, and he was secretly surprised.

Robles opened his palm, then bent his thumb down and said confidently, "$4 million!" ”

"It's not a good price! Young man, your courage is good, it's just that the math is too bad. Phidice scoffed.

"Oh! No, I've counted a little more? Robles shook his head and continued, "I know that the Continental Illinois Company also has a crush on the Chicago Trust Company, but I know better than they do. For example, if I give away a small amount of news about the Chicago Trust Company's failure in the futures market, I believe that tomorrow the gates outside will be all Chicago Company customers. ”

"You!" Phyedith pointed his finger at Robles rudely, and his heart did set off a turbulent wave, although he tried his best to remain calm, his face continued to change, and the complicated feelings in his heart were clearly seen by Robles in an instant.

Seeing the other party sit down and smoke in silence, Robles smiled, he knew that the founder of the Chicago Trust Company in front of him looked after the company like a child, and he could not bear to see the company go bankrupt.

As for choosing Robles Securities or Continental Illinois, Robles has a great deal of confidence in winning the other party.

Because the Continental Illinois Company knew that the Chicago Trust Company's investment had failed, it would never be willing to spend $4 million to buy it. At the same time, other large companies that are angry with Illinois on the mainland will also not give up so much money. Calculated and calculated, only Robles Securities has this heart and strength.

"How do you know?" Phidice said with a frown.

"This is my secret. But I can tell you that I am much better informed than you are. ”

Robles naturally won't tell the other party, and if you keep a hand, it's better to hide the hole cards.

"It's just a coincidence. There was no calculation, but I didn't expect the Chicago Trust Company to gamble so much. Robles couldn't help but reveal it slightly.

"I see. I understand. I'm going to think about it. Phidis said, guessing a few points in his heart.

Phidis's tone softened a lot, and when Robles exposed the secret in his heart, it felt like he had been caught.

He couldn't imagine what it would be like if the Chicago Trust Company was revealed.

Yesterday, a financial company next door went bankrupt, and the company's CEO jumped off the building, and many customers who lost all their money in speculators also jumped off the building. When Phydes passed by, the bright red blood, and the head that had fallen into an old watermelon, made him feel like throwing up!

?

So at the same time, in faraway California, San Francisco, Stuart Nan was listening to this Dennis? Fargo excitedly introduced Wells Fargo.

“?? Now Wells Fargo has 30 branches throughout California, covering San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, Sacramento and other large and small cities, with 1,500 employees and total assets of about $250 million. Up to $50 million can be mobilized at one time. This money can be used just right??"

Situ Nan nodded frequently, and suddenly asked, "What happened to Giannini's Bank of Italy?" Can you eat it? ”

(Hey, I've been a little dizzy in the past two days, I can't lift my spirits, and the update is slow.) Thank you for your understanding. ）

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