Chapter 92: The Great Depression (11)

The next day, Huang Xuan stayed in the beta printing house, looking at the rolling US dollars, Huang Xuan felt that the noise was also pleasant.

In order to make it easier to sell, Huang Xuan asked him to add another old process, which was very simple, but let Lorraine do it, and almost used up 3 million US dollars of energy.

According to a rough calculation, Lorraine has eaten about $25 million since arriving at P101, which is still the light crude oil purchased last time, and if it relies on a few electrolytic aluminum plants, it will not even have the energy to go back. Fortunately, it's harvest time.

Overnight, the Beta Printing Plant produced $15 million. This is not 15 million after the depreciation of the dollar, even before the Great Depression, this money is equivalent to half a year's profit of Ford, enough to enter the list of the richest people in the United States.

Huang Xuan first took about 20 kilograms of green banknotes—about $2 million, packed them in a large travel bag, and put the remaining banknotes into the plane passage, then turned off the machine and walked out of the workshop. Handing the travel bag to Hans, he said, "Chase National Bank." ”

In the hall of the bank, Joseph immediately noticed the tall Hans beside him, especially the travel bag in his hand.

"Is there anything I can do for me?" Joseph said a cliché, his white-gloved fingers crossed around his waist, and led Huang Xuan to the VIP room, where the deposit of $600,000 was enough for him to use the room at will.

There are only three of them in the beautifully decorated small room, and in this era, naturally there will be no monitors, Huang Xuan took the travel bag in Hans's hand with confidence, opened the zipper, and said, "Please order a little bit, I want to store them in your bank." ”

Joseph only glanced at it, and knew that his performance this month was completed, he quickly beckoned his deputy to call in, and while respectfully serving coffee to Huang Xuan, he said, "Please wait a while, our employees will order it for you soon." ”

Huang Xuan nodded indispensably and said, "Well, I want to meet Mr. Rockefeller, Little John. Rockefeller. ”

"I'll let you know right away." Joseph said and walked out.

Huang Xuan knew that Rockefeller would definitely come to see him. $2 million is a lot of money, and if you have to compare, you can think of it as $100 million in 70 years. Especially in 1931, when there was a shortage of liquidity, the role of this cash was like a timely rain for the banks. The bank run occurred in 1933, when countless commercial banks would collapse due to lack of cash to cope with withdrawals, but two years earlier, the signs had already appeared.

"Hans, go and get the drawings I put in the car." Huang Xuan gently stirred the candy stick.

"Okay." Hans glanced at the employees in the room, beckoned another bodyguard, and gave him a few words, while he stood behind Huang Xuan again.

Little Rockefeller spent a long time in the business of Chase Bank, and today is no exception, after receiving news from Joseph, he quickly packed up his clothes and walked down, and when he saw Huang Xuan, he shook hands with him reservedly but slightly affectionately, and said, "I heard that you are Chinese?" Nice place. ”

China in the 30s was actually not very good, and the golden period of national capitalism in World War I had ended, but Rockefeller started with this, which did make Huang Xuan very favorable.

He got up and shook hands with him, and said, "Mr. Rockefeller is a busy man, so I will get straight to the point, this time, I heard that you have invested in Pan American Airlines?" ”

"Yes." Rockefeller poured himself a glass of whiskey and said, "Mr. Huang also wants to take a stake in Pan Am?" ”

During the Great Depression, Pan Am was one of the few large-scale profitable companies, and by 31 years, more and more people wanted to take a stake in this sunrise company, and Rockefeller took it for granted that Huang Xuan had the same mind.

But the Chinese's shaking made him a little "confused" and "confused", Huang Xuan reached out and took the drawing held by Hans, and while unfolding it, he said: "I think you must be curious, why Mr. Sloan and Ford are related to me, right?" ”

"Yes, there are some." Rockefeller admitted.

"It's because of this." As he spoke, Huang Xuan had already completely unfolded the drawings, he simply handed this end to Joseph to hold, stood beside Rockefeller empty-handed, and said, "Are you also interested in this?" ”

"This is ......, airplane drawings?"

“YES。” Huang Xuan is still the most familiar with this word, he smiled and rolled up the drawings again, handed them to Rockefeller and said, "If you have any ideas, you can find me again." He looked at Joseph.

Mr. Manager reacted immediately, took the deposit certificate handed to him by the deputy, and handed it to Huang Xuandao: "The total is 2,084,700 US dollars, welcome to Chase National Bank." ”

"Thank you." Huang Xuan glanced at Rockefeller again and left with a smile. In fact, he didn't really mean to sell Rockefeller aircraft drawings, time didn't allow him to do so, and on the other hand, with batches of printed dollar bills, it was just a waste of time to negotiate business with Rockefeller. But this has an advantage, as long as he can drop the appetite of little Rockefeller, he will not do anything because of the inexplicable large assets in the bank account, which is what Huang Xuan needs most.

Walking down the bank steps, Huang Xuan's expression became serious again, took a deep breath, got into the car, and said to Hans, "Go see Mr. Hammer." ”

Even in the United States, Hammer is a legend known as the King of Golden Ideas, a Russian-American who has worked in dozens of industries, from farming, pencils, medicine to art collecting and even oil, and has also had an amazing experience in collecting the goods that Huang Xuan cares about.

In 1922, Hammer brought his younger brother (an antique connoisseur) to Russia to discover a new frontier of Russian antiquities. Little by little, they built up their villa in Moscow like a museum. One day, an American antique dealer named E&Sak visited the house and almost popped out when he saw what he saw. Inspired by this, after paying a 15% export tax to the Soviet "government", he shipped most of his collection back to the United States to join the Saco Comptoir. Later, Saco went bankrupt and Hammer bought his shares.

During the Great Depression, it was from 1931 onwards that Hammer did something that surprised countless people, boldly selling art at the counter of a department store, and it was a huge success, making millions of dollars during the worst economic depression in the entire history of the United States. And what Huang Xuan is going to now is Hammer's department store.

In the depression of depreciation of most industrial goods, art is a rare commodity that retains or even increases in value, and it is under this idea that Hammer's department store has become one of the few popular places in New York.

When Huang Xuan got out of the car, the crowded shopping mall made him feel like watching a movie in the 90s.

Well-dressed gentlemen, holding their wives or other women, wearing high hats and carrying civilized sticks, politely pass by. The small parking lot is filled with all kinds of models, like a grand exhibition of classic cars. Dressed in a compact stand-up collar suit, Hammer shuttled down the hall, greeting every customer who approached him.

Huang Xuan's arrival immediately caught his attention.

A yellow man and two bodyguards, which reminded young Hammer of his experience in the Soviet Union, handed over the work at hand to the manager, Hammer quickly walked over, tilted his head, and said in very slow English: "Hello, I'm Armand. How can Hammer, the owner of this art dealership, help you? ”

"I think so." Huang Xuan answered in fluent East Coast English, and he learned a lot of everyday slang from his life in the United States over the past few days.

Taking two steps inside, Huang Xuan casually looked at the artworks inside and outside the counter, and said to Lorraine: "Look at what is not available in P112, it is valuable, but it can't be repeated, understand?" ”

"No problem." Lorraine seemed to be getting used to this kind of search, and soon got to work, and Huang Xuan smiled at Hammer and said, "I heard that you have the most complete collection of Russian royal family here, and you have come here." ”

As with every change of power, the end of the Romanov dynasty also put an end to the collections of successive tsars, and all works of art were sent to Moscow on Lenin's orders. In the passages of the dark storage rooms of the Kremlin military factory, some treasures have been lost, and no one knows where they are. The wicker boxes containing works of art were mostly preserved and not even opened, and they were guarded by the Kremlin's army. But when Stalin came to power, Lenin's efforts to preserve Russia's cultural heritage were curtailed. In exchange for Western economic support for his new regime, Stalin exchanged these precious Russian imperial relics for them. Beginning in 1927, the new regime took out some treasures, valued them, and finally bought them to the West. In their opinion, it is most natural to exchange these treasures for financial support.

However, from the very beginning, the value of all Russian treasures has always been underestimated, especially its artistic value, just as Chinese calligraphy and painting are more appreciated by Chinese, and the value of Russian art, especially its humanistic value, is more often only appreciated by Russians.

In 1931, Hanmo came to New York with thousands of Russian works of art to sell them for the new Russian regime. Although he did a good job, most works of art are a hundred times undervalued when compared to what they were 70 years from now.

Of course, at this moment, Hammer did not have such an understanding, and he was glad that there were people willing to buy Russian art, and it seemed, in large quantities.

"Let's go inside and talk." Hammer had always been a man of vision, and in his opinion, the young man in front of him was perhaps more willing to pay than everyone else here.

Huang Xuan smiled and nodded.