The bills of lading of foreign cloth introduced by various commercial houses were originally traded at a price of three yuan per horse, but the result fell directly to two nines, two sevens, two fives, and finally two to two and two before barely stopping.

The landed price of the British selling foreign cloth to Shanghai is also about two and a half yuan, which means that the current price is even lower than the purchase price of the ocean bank, which is really unreasonable.

The worst thing is that the price of these two yuan and two can't be stopped, and no one is willing to make up the remaining ninety percent of the funds to deliver the goods, and many people predict that the price of foreign cloth will definitely drop below two yuan.

Originally, the person who got the bill of lading paid a deposit at the cost of two and a half per horse, so it is more cost-effective to let the bill of lading become waste paper, and it is more cost-effective not to cash it, at least to stop the loss.

Foreign cloth has always been the largest bulk of goods, after the foreign cloth is unsalable, the price of silk and tea has also fallen, although not as outrageous as foreign cloth, but few people are willing to take cash to buy.

In just one month, many businessmen engaged in the bill of lading trade lost their capital, and even went bankrupt and jumped off the building (well, is there a building to jump at this time).

The bigger problem is that many trading houses originally thought that their goods were sold, but no one was willing to pay for the delivery at this time, only to find that these goods were originally smashed in their own hands, and there were no goods piled up in the warehouse that could be exchanged for money.

At this moment, the compradors of the entire Shanghai foreign bank panicked.

They do business, and they also have all kinds of capital exchanges, because they think that the goods will be delivered sooner or later, there are all kinds of loans and payments, but now the capital chain is suddenly broken, which is life-threatening.

In the whole of October, except for the Dagui Commercial Bank, which withdrew due to the fire, the total retail transaction volume of foreign cloth of all other commercial banks was less than 20,000 yuan, which was not even a fraction of the previous amount.

Since November, more than 20 foreign companies have closed their doors and ceased to operate, including many agents of powerful textile mills from Manchester.

They are lucky, they can still stop the loss and retreat, and many other foreign companies can't retreat if they want to.

In this case, the price of foreign cloth is still diving, from two pieces of two and all the way down to one piece of nine, and then continue to fall, and only barely stop when it reaches one piece of five, but it is also shaky.

The price of such a large quantity of goods as foreign cloth has almost been halved, and its influence is enormous.

Many commercial banks took stock of their inventory and funds, and found that they not only did not make money in the past two years, but also lost a lot of money.

In the case of Yisheng Bank, which has the largest market share, it originally accounted for almost two-thirds of Shanghai's foreign trade, and only then did it find that it was hit the most.

It turned out that Lin Aqin has always dared to take risks in business, in addition to getting a large amount of foreign cloth from Zhao Dagui last year, he also hoarded foreign cloth frantically this year, with a total of more than one million horses of foreign cloth in his hands, worth more than 3 million yuan;

What's worse is that in order to expand its market share, Yisheng Bank borrowed a lot of money from local banks and British banks, and the total amount of debt reached more than 2.5 million.

In normal times, this is 3 million goods, 2.5 million foreign debts, and at least 500,000 net profits, but at this juncture, it is 1.5 million goods, 2.5 million foreign debts, and the debt is close to 1 million yuan.

In 1844, when Zhao Dagui was engaged in the trade of goods, he also found that there was a lot of inventory and a small amount of cash, so he realized that the risk was huge, so he hurriedly turned around 180 degrees, cleared the inventory in his hand, and almost withdrew from the foreign cloth business.

Lin Aqin rushed more fiercely than Zhao Dagui, and he had been trading goods for more than two years, and the problems he encountered were naturally much more severe than those encountered by Zhao Dagui at that time.

At this time, even Lin Aqin, who had always pretended to be heroic, couldn't help but change his complexion.

Originally, the signs of unsalable foreign cloth appeared at the beginning of 1845, but at that time, Zhao Dagui suddenly made a comeback, and he had to compete with other merchants for the market, and everyone was tired of coping, so they forgot about this crisis;

Beginning in March, the various families united to suppress Zhao Dagui, knowing that the factory silk of Dagui Commercial Bank came out, and bought foreign cloth from Guangzhou at a low price to dump it, and in the end, neither side could afford to consume it, so they could only shake hands and make peace;

In June, there was such a strange way of doing business as the bill of lading, and speculative merchants enthusiastically bought the bill of lading, which was equivalent to placing a deposit in advance, so that the firms thought that all the goods in their hands had been sold, and they were paralyzed and careless, and only then did they wake up, but it was too late.

The unsalable foreign cloth crisis has finally revealed its hideous appearance, and most businessmen can't get out if they want to.

Historically, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and other treaty ports all experienced a serious crisis in 1845 when a large number of trading houses closed down, and many closed their doors to return to their hometowns in England.

On February 24, 1847, the Governor of Hong Kong, De Bye, wrote in a letter to the British Foreign Secretary, Palmerston, that "the imminent bankruptcy of the brokers, who were responsible for three-quarters of the transactions of Chinese and British merchants, and the fall in prices caused by the flooding of the market in 1845 with the import of manufactured goods, seem to have had an adverse effect on the future of Shanghai."

Taking Ningbo as an example, the trade volume of Dinghai in the previous two years could reach more than 500,000 yuan per year, but in 1845, the trade volume dropped directly to more than 12,000 yuan.

In Hong Kong, many foreign firms and compradors went bankrupt, and Britain had to order a halt to all construction of buildings under construction in Hong Kong to reduce expenses.

In addition, the unsalable foreign cloth crisis in Guangzhou was the first to appear, which made many Guangzhou merchants transport foreign cloth to Shanghai to sell, which made the foreign cloth crisis in Guangzhou alleviate a little, but also made the crisis in Shanghai more violent.

However, from a certain point of view, this crisis is beneficial to China, the British originally did not want to return Dinghai to China, originally told the Qing government to return Dinghai in 1846, but in 1845 many officers and politicians published statements in the newspapers, advocating that there was no need to return Dinghai to the Chinese, which would bring extremely large benefits to Britain.

However, after the outbreak of the Yangfu crisis, the economic value of Dinghai was almost non-existent, and calls for the return of useless islands prevailed, which eventually led to the smooth return of Dinghai to China in 1846.

Even in Hong Kong, a vice-consul (or vice-governor) proposed that Hong Kong should be returned to the Chinese and exempted from this economic burden, and for a time it was done well, but it was only later that the vice consul returned to China to put the matter on hold, and finally it was really resolved more than 150 years later.

At this time, Zhao Dagui lived in seclusion and rarely met other businessmen.

After a number of operations some time ago, Zhao Dagui had almost no inventory in his hands, but had accumulated a lot of real money.

In 1845, Zhao Dagui first saved three or four hundred thousand yuan by selling raw silk;

Later, when the bill of lading was speculating, he manipulated the market through powerful computing power, and of course, more importantly, took the opportunity to sell the goods, and earned another two or three hundred thousand yuan;

In the end, after the fire, 500,000 or 600,000 yuan was cashed out and all inventory was cleared;

Coupled with the previous cash, there is more than 1.3 million silver dollars of real money in his hands, which is very precious at this time, and there is no need to fight hard in this uncertain market.

Of course, this is not to say that he should not do anything.