In the busy halls, gestures and shouts are mixed with the ringing of uninterrupted telephones, and pieces of paper are passed from one big hand to the other like a hot potato, and on the blackboard around them, a number has just been written in chalk and will soon be altered.

This is the New York Stock Exchange in the Big Apple, where stocks, goods are priced, and then they are passed on by traders to various parts of the city, and finally they are fed back through the phone line, and then they are marked with new prices.

Wheat, steel, oil and even corn, everything you can imagine can be traded here, and this is where miracles are born. Here, every day a new millionaire is born, and every day someone goes bankrupt and jumps into the sea.

This is not only a symbol of the city, but also a symbol of the country's prosperity!

New Yorkers are proud of this place, which has become the world's second largest trading center after the United Kingdom, and the gap between them is rapidly narrowing.

Upstairs on the trading floor, there are private rooms, and the busy traders downstairs always look here from time to time while shouting, because everyone knows that these boxes are a paradise for bankers with a lot of money, and they are the center of astronomical transactions.

But today, no one cares about the big people upstairs, and no one cares about the partners around you, everyone's eyes stop on the blackboard around you!

In the past, there were rising and falling figures, but today all of them are falling out of surprise, and what is even more terrifying is that this endless decline has lasted for several days!

Everyone was sweating and the back was like dirt, and no one would have thought that the news on the front page of the Washington Post would become the fuse of this turmoil, and the two photos with pictures on the front page have also become the key to this game!

A few years ago, Thomas Mining, which was famous in the United States, suddenly made a comeback after several years of silence.

One month, Thomas Mining officially released the exploration report of the super oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, this news is like a bombshell, the Wall Street is dizzy, and the super reserves of 1.5 billion tons make the whole world shake! Even Mexico's political axe, which has always been less concerned about oil, has proposed territorial sea rights, hoping for a piece of the pie.

After a few years of silence, Thomas Mining has once again become the hottest topic in the United States and even the whole of Europe, and Thomas himself has been labeled as the world's No. 1 gold master!

There are even people who have put him in league with the Rothschilds in Europe.

But no one expected that this news would become the fuse that triggered this disaster. The day after the reserves were announced, George George, director of Thomas Mining and president of East Texas Oil, announced that the Gulf of Mexico oil fields would be merged into East Texas Oil!

This heavy blow directly hit Rockefeller fainted, because it indicates that Standard Oil's stake in East Texas Oil Company will shrink significantly, and it will even be counter-acquired!

Originally, this news was not a bad thing for the market, but the problem was that damn Thomas, who said in an interview, officially announced that if Standard Oil could not come up with a matching capital injection, then he would not rule out kicking Standard Oil out of East Texas Oil.

This news made Standard Oil fall by half in just two days, and drove the entire capital market to fluctuate sharply, and what is even more unexpected is that only five days later, Thomas Mining announced that it would build two large petrochemical plants in Australia and the Middle East at the same time, which made Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company even worse.

Coupled with the fact that the U.S. economy has already entered an era of surplus, this wave of decline has become more ferocious, and even the economic entities have fluctuated during this period, and the number of small factories closed in a single month is more than in a few years combined.

In the face of the continuous decline, everyone is nervous, is the era of financial famine coming? As they busied, they raised their heads and fixed their eyes on the three-story building across from the exchange.

Because the man in that building had saved the U.S. financial industry from nearly collapsing several times, when the crisis intensified, everyone began to discuss when he would intervene.

Old Morgan stood at the transparent glass window, his eagle-like eyes staring down, looking across the street at the bustling exchange as if it were his domain.

In fact, that exchange was indeed his domain, and as the most prominent and wealthy banker in America, he could even be called God there!

However, Morgan is not satisfied with just being a banker, after successfully matching the now famous General Electric Company in the United States, in the face of the emerging steel market, he has long wanted to show his strength, so not long ago he just established the Federal Steel Company, but the people who know him are very clear, the small Federal Steel Company can not carry Morgan's dream, his ambition is to establish a monopoly on the United States steel trust!

But before that, he must defeat two other men, Carnegie, the number one steel magnate, and Rockefeller, the president of Standard Oil, which controls the iron ore resources of the Great Lakes!

Thinking of these two people, Morgan also has a headache, whether it is strength or status, these two people are not inferior to themselves, and they are steady, old and difficult, if you want to dig out profits from them, it is even more difficult than buying the entire New York Stock Exchange!

Today, though, things seem to have taken a turn for the better, because dear Rockefeller is in trouble!

"Mr. Morgan, President Cleveland just called."

"Are you asking about this fall?" Morgan turned around and saw his assistant nodding, and suddenly the corners of his mouth hooked: "Mars, do you know Thomas?" ”

The assistant nodded: "Yes, but the friendship is not deep." ”

"And what do you think of him?" Morgan asked again.

"He's a very good guy, and he seems to have some kind of ability to pre-discover where there are suitable mineral deposits, like his adventures in East Texas, and as far as I know, he circled the waters of what is now the Gulf of Mexico shortly after he received Mr. Rockefeller's injected capital, and it took several years of exploration before the reserves were announced."

Morgan looked at the chatty assistant and smiled: "It seems that everyone, like you, is attracted by his "alchemy", but forgets something deeper. ”

"Deeper?"

"Yes, in the eyes of others, Thomas is a man with magical abilities, but in my opinion it is nothing, there are many, many miracles under this land, and it is not normal to be discovered, not to mention that he has enough funds to survey the whole world."

Morgan's eyes sparkled, sharp as a sharp edge: "You know, there are very few people who can admire me over the years, but Thomas is one of them, not because of alchemy, but because of the auction he led!" ”

"It was a magical night, he used the means of capital to the extreme, and I've been following him since that day, and I think he's been preparing for this day for a long time, and his dream is not to re-establish a new oil empire, but to completely defeat Rockefeller and make Standard Oil a toy in the palm of his hand."

"He's a terrible opponent, a wizard who plays with capital, a wizard I've never seen before!"

Morgan's words made the assistant swallow hard, and it was the first time he had seen this person who was the first person on Wall Street to use such words to describe a person in the world's financial markets.

"Tell President Cleveland on my behalf that I can't help him this time because I need to wait for someone here."

"Wait for someone?"

"Yes, Rockefeller, or Thomas." Morgan smiled and stood in front of the window again, looking down at the New York Stock Exchange across the street.

Where is the war still in full swing -

In the White House, Cleveland squeezed his eyebrows and walked back and forth in the room with a cigar between his cheeks. Stevenson's face was similarly sad.

During this period, the dispute between Standard Oil and Thomas Mining has threatened the real economy of the United States, and the sharp financial turmoil has caused a large number of companies to face financial crises, and this situation has caused Cleveland to be restless.

Seeing that his term of office has entered its final year, it is a critical moment to seek re-election to the presidency, and if this crisis is not resolved as soon as possible, resulting in a large number of workers losing their jobs, then his career in the White House may also come to an end!

"Adelai, Morgan really doesn't want to come forward?"

Adelaide Stevenson nodded: "Yes, I have contacted Mr. Morgan, but he did not receive me, but his assistant Mars has clearly told us that Mr. Morgan will not intervene in this financial dispute." ”

"Why?" Cleveland wondered a little, everyone knew that Morgan's ultimate goal was the crown of the father of American finance, why would he give up such a good opportunity to earn fame and money?

Adelai shook his head: "I don't know, but Mars told me that Mr. Morgan is busy with the Federal Steel Company and can't pull his hand out anytime soon." ”

Federal Steel?

Cleveland remembered the fourth-largest steel company in the United States under Morgan's name, and his eyes flashed: "He wants Rockefeller's Great Lakes?!" ”

"I think so." "Morgan has always had the idea of building the largest steel company beyond Mr. Carnegie, but he doesn't have enough steel deposits, and Rockefeller's Great Lakes also has a lot of steel ore, so I think he might be ready to take advantage of this opportunity to carve up Rockefeller with Thomas Mining," Adelai said. ”

"These damn guys." Cleveland scolded secretly, but there is no realistic way, these elephants rampant in the United States, trembling twice casually will have a serious impact on the economy, not to mention that this time it seems that the dispute between the two families involves super trusts in various fields, including Morgan, Rockefeller, Thomas and Carnegie.

Cleveland doesn't understand why he is so unlucky to have such a big financial turmoil at this critical moment when a new round of presidential elections is about to begin, and now that a reshuffle of the super-rich has begun in the United States, all he has to do is to make sure that this reshuffle does not threaten new elections for the rest of his term!

"Adelai, what do you think they're trying to do? Aren't the profits they get enough? ”

Adlai sighed: "Your Excellency, the trusts need to be contained, no matter what, otherwise the United States will be held hostage by them and become their paradise." ”

Hearing the words of his vice president, Cleveland was stunned in his heart, the call to break the monopoly of the industry has appeared in China for a long time or two, but at this time, can he do this?

He shook his head, pushed that thought out of his mind, and roared: "I don't care about the struggle between them, I just need to stabilize the financial market as soon as possible, and I can't let the situation continue like this, it will ruin the entire American economy!" ”

Adler knew what the president was worried about, the new U.S. election was about to begin, and no one could give the opponent a chance at this time, so he hurriedly said: "Mr. President, although Mr. Morgan does not plan to appear, Maas has given us a suggestion." ”

"Oh, tell me about it." Hearing the suggestion, the restless Cleveland immediately stopped.

"Mars said that this turmoil is not actually related to the real economy, the reason why this is so, is because of the surplus of industry in the United States over the years, so he suggested, I hope you can start from expanding demand, as long as those large companies can get enough orders, then the market's confidence will soon be restored."

"Enough orders? Oh, God! Cleveland slapped his head, since they all know that the United States is saturated, where can they go to find orders? Say it to me? They are running out of pants, or are they going to rob the colonies of other countries and start a war?!

Cleveland couldn't laugh or cry, is this a suggestion?

At this time, Adlai seemed to see through Cleveland's thoughts, and suddenly said: "Your Excellency, the order is not nothing. ”

"Oh? Where? ”

Adelai paused and said, "Have you forgotten the two Hawaiian foreign ministers who are visiting the country?" Mr. Morgan said they had visited Mr. Morgan to purchase a shipment of track steel from his federal steel supply company to build the railroad. ”

"And!" Adlai accentuated his tone: "Mars also said that the two of them still have at least $40 million in the procurement budget in their hands!" ”

"$40 million in procurement budget!" Cleveland people are all stunned, that little Hawaii, with so much money? Could it be that sugar has been selling for more than gold lately?

At this moment, the door of the office was suddenly pushed open, and the secretary walked into the office and handed a telegram to Cleveland: "Your Excellency, Mr. Roosevelt has sent a telegram. ”

Cleveland gritted his teeth! ――

"Boom."

After a crisp sound, white champagne foam poured out of the bottle, hundreds of wine glasses were close together, and a moment later the office building of Thomas Mining was immediately reminded of the jubilant sound.

Win!

In the face of Thomas's plan to forcibly merge the super oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico into East Texas Oil, although Rockefeller tried his best to prevent it, under the tempting benefits thrown by George, the shareholders went against his will this time, and together with Thomas Mining's stake in Standard Oil, they unanimously approved the plan to agree to the merger.

Although Rockefeller still holds the majority of the shares in the oil company and could veto the merger, the decline of Standard Oil is almost inevitable because the oil empire he has built will be divided and the construction of Thomas Mining's two major refining and petrochemical companies is on the agenda.

Rockefeller knew the importance of oil better than anyone else, otherwise he would not have spent a lot of money to build an oil empire for many years when the oil profits were not very rich, so under the pressure of internal and external troubles, he also had to negotiate with Thomas in person.

Finally, an agreement was reached before yesterday, agreeing to exchange the Great Lakes iron ore resources and $50 million in cash for 30 percent of the shares of the New East Texas Oil Company, but also required that Thomas's new oil refining company not enter the US market.

50 million dollars is nothing, but the iron ore resources of the Great Lakes are enough to make anyone blush and even go crazy, and it is estimated that the iron ore resources of the Great Lakes are worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars!

With the Great Lakes, it only takes a few years to build a new second-largest steel company in the United States, so Thomas is extremely excited, constantly hugging every employee, clinking glasses to celebrate, and at the same time, he also admires that guy's methods, capital injection, and embezzlement of opponents' property by diluting shares, how did he come up with it?

But just as he was toasting and celebrating with everyone, George suddenly pulled him into a corner.

"Dear Thomas, Lee has telegraphed."

George glanced at the celebratory crowd and shook his head with a wry smile: "Thomas, Lee asked you to sell the Great Lakes to Morgan immediately." ”

"What!"

The Thomas people are stupid, they finally got the Great Lakes, and they can build a new steel empire in just a few years, why sell it?! George took out the telegram, handed it to him and said, "He asked me to tell you, trust his judgment, he said that if Morgan buys the Great Lakes, then in a year you will be the God of America." ”

Thomas slapped his forehead hard, God of America? Damn, what the hell is this damn guy doing?!

"By the way, 3,000 cars running on petrol will arrive next month, Lee said, as a gift to everyone." Seeing Thomas's sad expression on his forehead and the corners of his mouth, George took the champagne in his hand and took a sip.

"It tastes good."

"Nice fart!" Thomas snatched back the champagne fiercely, raised his middle finger and said disdainfully: "Damn Lee, this is a gift, it is clearly that he wants me to advertise for him for free!" ”

"Haha!" ……

(To be continued)