Chapter 94: The Great Depression (13)

In the evening, Manhattan is still the most prosperous downtown area of New York, with dense streets of banks, companies, shops and offices, high-rise buildings towering in the night sky like cold mountain peaks, transparent glass walls like crystal palaces, and nobles and women walking in the period strolling leisurely, as if browsing the buildings of the World Expo.

The colorful street lights flicker, high and low, far and near, dense like a spider's web, make people almost forget that this is the Great Depression, and the slow headlights seem to be real and virtual, real and illusory, appearing and disappearing, just like this plane, this time and space.

The stars are like tadpoles, blank, and slow. Reflecting the people of different skin tones and nationalities on the sidewalk, it is full of playfulness.

Walking down the ancient Greek circular staircase of Chase Bank, Huang Xuan wiped his face vigorously, as if he wanted to wipe away the exhaustion, he had not slept for a day and a night, sitting with these world-renowned shopping mall prides, the pressure almost squeezed the strength out of his chest, but the bones stubbornly supported his body.

Hans glanced at Huang Xuan worriedly, and asked softly, "Are you going back to Hilton now?" ”

"Go to West 47th Street." You can't leave things to be done on the last day. Huang Xuan understood what his mother meant when she said this, instead of putting hope that everything would go well, it was better to try to get the job done before the problem.

West 47th Street in New York isn't more well-known than Fifth Avenue, but you're bound to hear it from a gentleman or lady when you need it: Antwerp train station, West 47th Street in New York, Hatton Gardens in London, the high-rise buildings of Ramat Gan in Tel Aviv, the Opera District in Mumbai and the "Diamond City" in India.

That's right, they all sell diamonds.

Unlike the next few locations, New York's West 47th Street also sells other jewelry, and Huang Xuan doesn't care what it sells, in the information given by Lorraine, this is the place that best meets Huang Xuan's requirements, although the question of the diamond's certificate is annoying, but it is by no means more annoying than the lack of money itself.

Huang Xuan felt that this was perhaps the most unscrupulous in his plane travel career, and that there were too many requirements to meet in order to print banknotes: there must be no other plane bases, there must be banknotes, there must be an era in which printing presses can be easily modified, there must be an era of developed commerce, and there must be places where materials can be bought—all of this indicates that madness cannot be infinite......

But as long as he is in a crazy era and in a crazy New York, Huang Xuan will not waste even a little opportunity, and printing money has a cost.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Nordstrom was still open, and like the shops that rose after the Great Depression, the owner, Nordstrom, worked harder than usual, patrolling the counters, encouraging every employee, and talking frequently to customers, introducing even a ring worth as little as $30.

Hans gently pushed open the glass door for Huang Xuan, and the brilliant light reflected from the countless jewels, as if stabbing him in the eye. Huang Xuan laughed.

Nordstrom immediately spotted the tall Hans, he took two steps closely, came to Huang Xuan, who was still looking, and said, "Sir, do you need jewelry?" ”

"Yes." Huang Xuan had already changed into a small dress from Messi, dressed like a gentleman who was about to attend a banquet, and even Hans put on a well-fitting round-neck suit. "A few rags are worth $3,000." - Hans said this when shopping for clothes.

The short answer did not dampen Nordstrom's enthusiasm, his face was still full of youthful energy, and he opened his right arm in a way peculiar to Westerners, pointed straight ahead, and said, "Welcome to Nordstrom Comptoir." I'm the owner of Nordstrom and you can't go wrong in Nordstrom whenever you want to buy jewelry. ”

It's completely American, flamboyant, confident, but not necessarily really. Huang Xuan smiled, handed the hat to Hans, and said, "I want to buy some accessories to take home and give to my family and some friends." ”

“YES。” Nordstrom pronounced the last "s" so long, his fists clenched, and it seemed that he also understood that he had met a big customer.

"Are you a diplomat? Japanese? Nordstrom led Huang Xuan directly into the private room and asked while the waiter went to pick up the jewelry.

Huang Xuan smiled and just said, "My surname is Huang." ”。

Nordstrom seemed to be unconscious, and introduced it to Huang Xuan, and when the waiter brought the jewelry, the whole person became even more excited.

In fact, in the early years of the 20th century, pure jewelry, that is, no historical origin and antique "sex" of brand new jewelry, its price is not high, taking diamonds as an example, the world's most famous diamond "hope", also known as the bad luck diamond blue "color" diamond, in 1908 was bought by the Turkish Sultan Hamid II for 400,000 US dollars, in 1911, It was sold to McClain, the head of the postal service in Washington, D.C., for $114,000, and by the new century it could have increased in value more than tenfold, if the Smith Institute was willing to sell it, and someone was willing to buy it.

But during the Great Depression, the value of jewelry did not decrease, but it never appreciated. The price of diamonds at Nordstrom is usually above $400, and the higher price is about $2,000, which does not meet Huang Xuan's requirements, because all the supporting documents issued by the bank will eventually be torn off, and Huang Xuan cannot go home with the appraisal documents, and these lower-value diamonds will be reduced several times in the absence of supporting documents, and may even not be sold at all. In addition, Lorraine also needs a lot of energy to transport diamonds home, although as a diamond composed of pure carbon atoms, its consumption is not very high, but in the face of tens of thousands of degrees of energy, the price is less than 100,000 yuan, which is equivalent to a loss.

Seeing Huang Xuan shaking his head, Nordstron was also a little anxious, waved his hand to let the waiter leave, and said, "What is Mr. Huang's idea?" ”

"There are very few metal ornaments, the diamond must be a carat diamond, the 4C grade must be high, and the value retention ability is strong. To put it simply, even if I peel off the diamond, it must be easy to sell. For other jewelry, I personally prefer rubies, and sapphires should have a more uniform color, so I don't need to take the crystal. "The so-called carat diamond is a diamond higher than 1 carat, although it is only 0.2 grams, but the diamond is always much larger than the smaller, and the price is also very different.

Nordstrom's eyes are about to bulge, among the gemstones, the red and blue "colors" are the most expensive, and the slightly better ones will cost tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention the diamonds, the price of each additional level of the 4C grade will skyrocket. He glanced at Huang Xuan's outfit again, but still nodded and said, "Then please wait a moment." With that, he got up and left the room.

Huang Xuan crossed his legs and drank tea, not in a hurry at all. Before he arrived, he had already spent $3 million on other jewelry stores, and by tomorrow, there would probably be rumors in the entire jewelry world that a rich boy from somewhere in Asia had swept New York.

……

Over the next three days, Huang Xuan met with Stephen, Sloan, and Rockefeller, and sold four more blueprints, estimating that the European auto industry would suffer a heavy blow in the next few years.

Rockefeller did not take away the Boeing 307 design drawings he coveted after all, and the amount paid by Ford and GM is getting higher and higher, and the final BMW 326 design is priced at as high as 1.2 million US dollars, but it is only a "hair" for the 50 million yuan bills produced by the Beta factory every day.

In addition to the $120 million in assets that passed through Chase Bank one after another, Citi issued a deposit certificate of $80 million for Huang Xuan, and the British Huifeng received $48 million and Union Bank of America $28 million......

In the spirit of the United States, no one will refuse a big customer until it is determined that Huang Xuan's banknotes are black money – and if it is proven, they will lose nothing. Of course, Huang Xuan will not lose anything.

The money kept buying jewelry, paintings, antiques, philatelic goods, and other works of art, and the only criterion was the profit margin, if Lorraine estimated that the price of a commodity could be sold for $1 million in the new century, then the energy consumption in the plane tunnel could not exceed $100,000 worth of electricity. Later, the standard was changed again to $10,000, then $5,000. Because the total amount of electricity stored and available at the base does not exceed 200 million kWh, that is, under the condition of ensuring safety, only 150 million kWh of electricity can be used to transport materials, that is, 10 million US dollars worth of electricity. Since there were no credible people in Brazil, it was impossible to temporarily increase the energy reserves, so Huang Xuan had to regretfully discard most of the porcelain, enamel, and the remaining tens of millions of dollars in P101, and they were sent back to China in one go, and there was no need to dig into who the recipients were.

Of course, the value of many works of art is far more than 100 times the profit, but in just one week, the number that can be bought is not too much.

Coming out of Hammer's department store for the fourth time, Armand. Hammer was already Huang Xuan's best friend, and he sold Huang Xuan $89 million worth of art, mostly from Russia, during which time the "generous Chinese" Huang Xuan did not negotiate a price with him once. Except for those artworks that overlapped with Huang Xuan's plane, all the artworks that had been lost or could not find collectors were swept away by Huang Xuan, and it is said that the red capitalist also achieved his profit target of $4 million in the Great Depression ahead of schedule. Lorraine estimates that his profit may have exceeded 20 million, but so what's the matter.

The classic car writhes like a mayfly, the colorful curtains are hidden behind the window, and the bright window displays red agate, green and crisp jasper, and heavy yellow bronze, just like Huang Xuan's mood at the moment.

He shook Hammer's hand again and said, "In this case, I will return to China, and I hope that Mr. Hammer will be able to go to China one day." ”

"Definitely, definitely." Hammer held his hand tightly.

"My country is not at peace now, I don't know when it will develop, I may be no longer there by then, but I hope that Mr. Hammer can help me take care of him."

Hammer unexpectedly became sad, this kind of uncertainty about the future is the most nostalgic for every American in the Great Depression, he couldn't help but hold Huang Xuan's hand, just said: "Certainly, definitely." ”

Huang Xuan smiled and walked into the car, Hans closed the door expressionlessly, and the Ford Model T spewed out a puff of smoke, like the dust of history.