1855 United States Tycoon

The collapse of oil prices is only the beginning. The market economy is a connected whole. When the price of one thing fluctuates in a wide range, it will definitely affect other things, just like the ripples you drop in a calm pond and splash. It will expand in circles until it spreads over the entire pond. The same is true for the oil crisis. With the plummet of oil prices, steel companies were the first to be affected. In just two days, the price of pig iron dropped by five percentage points. Today's steel, due to the oppression of the McDonald Steel Company, is no longer a highly profitable industry. Such a five-percentage decline has left most of the small and medium-sized steel companies completely unprofitable. So the iron and steel industry was suddenly sad.

"Gutwin, do you now understand the reason Scrooge McDonald's provoked the rise in oil prices?" JP Morgan smiled. "This guy has a lot of appetite. Do you understand his purpose now?"

"I heard that he and Rockefeller are taking advantage of this opportunity to continue to acquire oil wells. Well, before the price spike, they had already taken down a lot of oil refineries. I'll do the math... now the entire United States Two-thirds of the oil refineries and one-half of the oil wells are in their hands. And they bought the prices of those companies, almost like a robbery."

"Yeah, the price is a robbery. If I have the ability, I want to grab a hand. Unfortunately, our strength in chemistry is too far behind the McDonald family. Let's just leave the oil wells and refineries. Taking it over, the quality of the kerosene and lubricating oil we produce is still not comparable to standard oil. Entering this market, it will only be crushed by standard oil. So, hehe, except for those two bastards, it is still true now No one dares to buy those oil wells and refineries. But if you think that Scrooge's hypocrite's goal is only oil, you would underestimate Taiwan's appetite."

"Mr. Morgan? You mean Mr. Macdonald has bigger goals?" Gutwin asked.

"What can oil do? It's just kerosene and machine lubricant for electric lights. This market is a bit bigger? A market of this size is not enough for him. All he needs is an economic panic!" Morgan said "Look, the steel industry has begun to show signs of panic. Now the price of steel is very low, and the average steel mill has no profit, at most it can barely maintain it. But as far as I know, because of steelmaking Advantages in technology, especially open-hearth steelmaking technology, so McDonald Steel still has a lot of room for price cuts. As long as they cut prices along with them, other steel companies will have to lose money if they want to continue to operate. How can this be supported? Live? The panic is almost expected. At that time, the steel panic will continue to spread to mining, and then Scrooge can take the opportunity to integrate the oil industry and capture the entire steel industry in his hands. This industry is much more promising than petroleum. This is really a series of moves full of artistic beauty."At this time, there was a knock on the door. After getting permission, Morgan's secretary came in and gave Morgan a newspaper and a telegram.

On the front page of the newspaper, there was a piece of news: "The world's largest steelmaking open-hearth furnace and the largest blast furnace were officially completed and put into production." In the content of the main text, McDonald Steel’s general manager Carol McDonald said that after the two facilities are put into production, the product quality of McDonald’s Steel will further improve, while the cost will continue to fall. "We will be able to return our customers at a more favorable price." In this report, Carol said.

"Look, look." Morgan laughed. "These guys don't even want to face than I thought. They don't even cut the price directly, but throw out the news that the price will be reduced. I guess, with this. According to the news, the steel mills in the north are going to go bankrupt by more than half. It's really a steel roller! Let me see what this telegram is. Ah, this is really...hehe, the iron ore is going to be over."

"What's the news?" Gutwin asked.

"The telegram sent by Scrooge, he intends to start the development of Misabi iron ore, I have 20% of the shares there, so he notified me. I guess his first step is to tell everyone that the iron ore has How big, um, probably at least 800 million tons (in fact, 1.5 billion tons). Hehe, this animal. In addition, he said that he recently came back to New York to host his new transatlantic communication antenna. I want to start work. On the other hand, I also want to visit me to discuss how to save the United States economy that is about to fall into crisis. Well, it's actually a question of how to distribute the prey. It is difficult for us to compete with him for the steel piece, but when steel comes out The problem, coal mines and railways will definitely fall. This is our chance..."

The two good news published by the Macdonald family through the newspapers gave the metallurgical industry on the brink of panic a heavy blow. The largest blast furnace and the largest open-hearth furnace first smashed various steel plants. Although McDonald's Steel Company has not cut prices for the time being, almost all users who need to buy steel have started to stop buying steel and wait for price cuts. The McDonald Steel Company now has two large and stable supply projects-the Pacific Railway and the Trans-Atlantic Communication Tower. This allows them to continue to operate in a short period of time, while other steel companies will not work. As soon as the phenomenon of currency waiting to be purchased appeared, their capital chain was immediately in danger of breaking. Therefore, selling inventory at a reduced price has become the only way to maintain the capital chain. Then there was a price avalanche. Then, Carol was very busy. Every day, there were continuous bankruptcy auctions. Then he needed to send personnel every day to buy the valuables.

Once the news of the largest iron ore mine in United States was announced, the blow to the iron ore mine was also devastating. The largest iron ore mine is close to the Great Lakes and the transportation is extremely convenient. It can be mined in the open pit and is easy to mine. Such a series of good news is almost the bell of the doomsday when the iron ore supply exceeds demand due to the steel recession. As a result, a large number of iron ore mines began to shut down, and even declared bankruptcy one by one, and then they were auctioned off.

"The Lanxishan Iron Mine has proven reserves of 5 million tons. It is a low-phosphorus, low-sulfur, high-quality iron ore. It is five kilometers away from the railway and has convenient transportation. Auction." The auctioneer announced the start of the auction.

This is the fourth iron ore to be auctioned at this auction house today. Of the first three iron ore auctions, two of them failed because they were deemed to have too high a reserve price and no bids were made. The remaining one was easily purchased by McDonald Steel Company at a price of only $2,000 higher than the reserve price. This actually means that there are no other acquirers except McDonald Steel Company.

Even the Lanxishan Iron Mine has been auctioned for the second time. The reserve price was set a little higher last time, but it didn't sell out. This time, the auction house is still very confident, because the quality of the ore of the Lanxishan Iron Mine is well-known in this generation. Now that the reserve price has dropped from 200,000 U.S. dollars to 100,000 U.S. dollars, the transaction should not be a problem.

Sure enough, there was an quotation immediately below, "One hundred two thousand dollars." McDonald Steel's agent Walter raised the sign.

"One hundred and four thousand dollars." A mysterious figure also held up a sign.

"Someone bid with us?" Walter glanced over there in a bit of surprise. Sitting there was a fairly young guy. When Walter turned his gaze to him, he stared provocatively. Walter.

"One hundred and four thousand dollars, is there anyone offering a higher price? One hundred and four thousand dollars..." The auctioneer's eyes were fixed on Walter.

"One hundred and six thousand dollars." Walter still held up the sign calmly.

"One hundred and eight thousand dollars!" The young man immediately held up the sign, and then looked at Walter with a full face.

"One hundred and eight thousand dollars, this gentleman just bid one hundred and eight thousand dollars, is there anyone offering a higher price?" the auctioneer shouted.

Walter leaned back on the back of the chair and set up Erlang's legs leisurely. It seems that he is not here to participate in the auction, but just a spectator to watch some kind of performance.

"One hundred and eight thousand dollars for the first time..." The auctioneer dragged his voice, and Walter continued to lean on the backrest unmoved.

"One hundred and eight thousand dollars for the second time..." The auctioneer's voice dragged longer, and even the young man looked towards Walter. Walter continued to lean on the backrest, even closing his eyes leisurely. "Playing this with me? It's ridiculous." Walter thought.

"One hundred and eight thousand dollars... the third time. This iron ore now belongs to the gentleman who bid one hundred and eight thousand dollars." Hearing this sentence from the auctioneer in a trembling voice, Walter Then he opened his eyes and glanced at the auctioneer and the pale young man. Then stood up and walked out leisurely. Anyway, now, he is not in a hurry, the longer the delay, the less valuable the iron ore. "At this time, I still want to play with flowers like this, really..." Walter thought.

A large number of bankruptcies brought a large number of unemployment, and the slums of New York were full of precarious unemployed workers. Anxiety and anger accumulate in these people who have been working hard but have difficulty supporting their families, and now they are even more hungry and cold. As long as a spark, it may bring a fire that burns everything.

"This crisis is not accidental! It was manipulated behind the scenes! Friends, let us recall the warnings of President Lincoln and his efforts to stop the oil craze. However, a few days later, Our president was shot in broad daylight! Then Mr. Chase, who worked with the president to stop all of this, got sick and resigned! Do you really believe that some fellows who sympathized with the slave owners in the South shot and killed President Lincoln? No! No! The murder of President Lincoln was a conspiracy. President Lincoln was killed because he stood in front of a group of greedy wolves and wanted to protect us! The murderer who killed him, the enemy of our toiling people was not in the south or anything else. Where is our enemy? Our enemy is on Wall Street!" Standing on a waste oil drum, Coral, the leader of the union, exhausted his own power and shouted to the dark crowd below: "The enemy is on Wall Street!"

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