A few days later, Joshua received a reply from his family: based on Scrooge's Jianyì, the entries were detailed, and an agreement was finally reached. So the next day, Joshua went to Duck Castle again to meet with Scrooge, and finally reached a cooperation agreement that was arguably the biggest mastermind behind the seventies of the nineteenth century.

As part of the deal, the Rothschilds traded Mouton for three southern wineries in Scrooge's possession. Although not as well-known as Château Lafite, Château Mouton was also ranked first in the second class in the 1855 Bordeaux Rating. In fact, the Châteaux that made it to the 1855 Bordeaux Rating are outstanding. In its own right, Scrooge definitely earned it. Because today, the winery is worth at least two million francs, which is more than four hundred thousand dollars. And the wineries given by Scrooge together are worth 100,000 dollars.

However, the figure of $400,000 is nothing in the eyes of the Rothschilds, the representatives of the old wealthy, and the MacDonalds, the representatives of the nouveau riche. Dorothea, who had tended vineyards as a child and had heard a lot of legends about Bordeaux wine from her father and brother, was so interested in it that she even clamored that she would go to Bordeaux next September to see the grapes. Well, although it is said that it is an unmarried girl who asks to step on grapes, however, rich people are so capricious.

Today, Scrooge's energy is basically focused on the expansion of industries in France and the domestic railway-related stock market.

In France, many of Scrooge's companies have no competitors. ammonia and pesticides. Some of them have competitors, but because of their technological advantages, these competitors cannot compete with the companies of the MacDonald consortium. For example, steel and power generation. Originally, in the French market, and even in the European market, the only thing that could limit these companies was the government's policy and the financial ceiling of the MacDonald consortium itself.

But now, after cooperating with the Rothschilds, with the influence of the Rothschilds and the help of financing, the MacDonald family's business has expanded rapidly in France. Of course, it is also necessary to leave a hand in the cooperation, for example, Scrooge has split the fertilizer plant that should have been integrated into two parts: He. Ammonia formation plant and urea production plant. The latter uses a lot of financing from the Rothschild family, while the former is almost a sole proprietorship of the MacDonald family. The same is true for most other businesses, such as power plants, which use a lot of money from the Rothschild family, but substations that are absolutely wholly owned.

Compared with the familiar industrial expansion in France, the financial activities in the United States were a little newer to Scrooge. Joshua, who is now rumored to be working with Scrooge on the American railroad speculation, said this to his wife:

"Generally speaking, Mr. Scrooge MacDonald is not a human at all, he is a glutton, and whenever he sets foot in the field, he will quickly wipe out a single competitor and swallow up almost the entire market. It's like munitions, it's like medicine, it's like steel, it's like electricity and communications. He does have terrible abilities that ordinary humans can't have. Seeing him even reminds me of the legendary Doctor Faustus (medieval legend in which he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power). However, he is not omnipotent, and Mr. Scrooge MacDonald, for example, is not very good in finance. Although he can easily understand all kinds of complex financial skills, but in practice, his performance is quite average, well, I mean his grasp of timing is very average, this is not only a technical problem, but even a talent problem. In this respect, he is even far inferior to you. But Mr. Scrooge MacDonald is terrible about two things: one is that he is almost infallible in his judgment of the general direction, which makes it unlikely that he will fall into the big hole, and the other is that he knows his own shortcomings. So you see, Scrooge was very cautious when dealing with finance-related things. In this way, although there will be a lot of opportunities to make money, it will also avoid possible losses. You see, his venture capital bank, except for technology investment, basically adopts the most conservative means in other activities, relying on the high-quality industry of the entire family, relying on the capital and others to play the power faction. ”

Joshua's wife is said to have replied, "Honey, if it weren't for that, we might have become Mr. Morgan, wouldn't we?" ”

Because of this, the cooperation between Scrooge and Joshua basically became, with Scrooge making the big picture judgment and Joshua dealing with the specific issues.

"Joshua (now they're familiar), I think the time is almost right." Scrooge said to Joshua, "You see it's you. In the last two months, the rate of capital inflow from Europe to the Americas has dropped significantly, while the phenomenon of capital inflow has increased. And, as far as we know, the overcapacity situation is becoming more and more apparent, and on the passenger side, there are already more train staff than passengers on some lines. The problem of freight is even more obvious, in order to compete, some freight lines have adopted the means of vicious price reduction competition, and they have been running at a loss. Such a situation cannot be sustained for long. I think it's time for us to think about retreating - we've made enough money, don't run too late and be seen and scolded. ”

Joshua understands the habits of this guy Scrooge, who wants to cheat people and likes to pretend to be a virgin. He attaches great importance to his image in society. So sometimes he prefers to make less money, because he thinks his reputation is still quite valuable. Now it is obvious that he intends to withdraw first, lose a little profit, and let Morgan bear the black pot of the mastermind behind the scenes.

"Well," Joshua said, "we can really think about withdrawing our funds." I'll take care of that. ”

"Joshua, see if you can do that, well, just so that the stock market doesn't crash immediately after we pull out." Scrooge said.

"Well, no problem. Scrooge, you must know that as long as the operation is done correctly, the current price actually has some room to rise. Have you really decided to monetize all your shares? ”

It is said that the most complex and dangerous way to fight on the battlefield is to retreat. The same is true in the financial markets, where the withdrawal of funds is the most technical. Because the banker's every move in the stock market has countless eyes staring, once the bookmaker retreats directly, it is almost certain, the stock price will fall rapidly, if the bookmaker in order to reduce losses and speed up the retreat, the panic shou will appear quickly, and at that time, the stock price will fall even faster than the speed of the bookmakers' escape. Therefore, if the market maker really wants to really take the money out of the stock market, he must retreat quietly and not let other retail investors find out. To paraphrase an old line, that is: "Quietly go out of the village, don't beat qiang." ”

To achieve such an effect, there are generally several ways to do this:

First of all, you can prepare two vests. Today the No. 1 vest is sold, the No. 2 vest will be bought at a slightly higher price, and tomorrow the No. 2 vest will be sold, and the No. 1 vest will be bought at a slightly higher price. In this way, it can create a momentum of both buying and selling, and the stock price is rising. Then retail investors will follow up stupidly, so in such a few vests of each other, they can unconsciously sell the stocks in their hands.

Of course, this practice was illegal and strictly forbidden in later generations, just as drug use was banned in later generations. As for whether it is really banned, no one really does it like this or does it in disguise, that's not safe. As Marx said, as long as there is a 300 percent profit, every rule in the world is bullshit. In Scrooge's time, it was even straightforward to do so.

The second way is to release favorable information to lure retail investors into eating and take advantage of the situation to liquidate the stocks in their hands.

Scrooge understands both methods, but to operate so that ordinary retail investors can't see the problem, it requires a very delicate approach. And that's where Joshua excels.

……

"My friends, I'm sure Scrooge and Joshua are going to liquidate their railroad stock. Now, let's discuss together, what do we do? Morgan said to the members of his coalition.

Seeing that the other people didn't react much - this is normal, and seeing Scrooge's tricks is not easy for retail investors, but it is not too difficult for these guys.

"Now we have two options." "One is that we're going to preemptively sell a lot now, retreat quickly, so that the stock price will crash quickly, and then, well, if Scrooge and Joshua react a little bit slower, they'll get stuck in the highs...... Well, being able to pit these two guys is fascinating to think about. ”

"If Scrooge was the only one doing this, we would probably be able to trap him. But now, it's the Rothschild people who are in charge, these guys are not so easy to pit, and if we don't pay attention, maybe we will get into it ourselves. A banker stepped forward with a cautious objection.

"If it was Scrooge who was in charge, he would have quit a long time ago, and he wouldn't have given us such an opportunity at all." Someone said on the side.

"If it's just that guy from the Rothschilds, it's not impossible to make less money, and it's not impossible to pit them. But now it's also about MacDonald. If such a pit could bankrupt them all, it would be worth the risk, but even if they couldn't get a penny back, would it be such a big blow to MacDonald? ”

"And it also reduces our bottom line."

Listening to these nonsense, Morgan smiled, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have communicated with Scrooge before. He assured me that he would not support the return of the Rothschilds to Wall Street. I think this assurance of his should be reliable. Rothschild is back, which is not necessarily a good thing for him. However, as far as I know, in the financial markets, Scrooge is a man who wants to be stable, but Joshua is not, he is a man who seeks to be efficient. If my reading is correct, most of their actions now were strongly requested by Scrooge, and Joshua was not necessarily willing. Because as long as the operation is done properly, the stock price still has a little room to rise. I know Joshua and he will most likely stay in pursuit of greater efficiency. The question now is whether we are going to trick Joshua at this time. Let's first withdraw the big head with Scrooge, and then fight to make less money in the back, and sell the goods fiercely. Create a collapse and give Rothschild a hard blow, what do you think?