1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 576 Competitors

The railroad crisis that broke out in the fall of 1857.

That year, nearly 5,000 companies went bankrupt, with the total capital involved reaching US$291.8 million.

Soon the railway crisis triggered a currency crisis and the entire banking system was paralyzed. When the situation was at its worst, 62 of the 65 banks in New York stopped paying, the discount rate was as high as 60%, and the stock market plummeted by 20% to 50%, among which the stocks of the railroad companies fell by more than 80%.

Company bankruptcies, factory shutdowns, business losses, agricultural stagnation, financial collapse and bank failures have been the norm in the past two years.

It is different from previous cyclical economic crises. In the second or third year of previous cyclical economic crises, there will often be signs and symptoms of the crisis gradually receding and the economy slowly recovering.

Therefore, the people of the United States can still grit their teeth and endure it.

But this time, it seems that God has not blessed the United States. In the third year of the crisis, the overall economic situation of the United States has not improved, but has a tendency to develop in a worse direction.

Problems of unemployment, poverty, hunger and even famine followed one after another.

It was against this background that Lincoln barely stabilized Illinois' economic situation, making Illinois' economy perform very well among the Eastern states that were wailing all over the country. It has won the support of a large number of people from the middle and lower classes.

But looking at the entire United States, it is not Illinois that performs most brilliantly during the economic crisis, but the three states on the West Coast, led by California.

Far from being dragged down by the crisis, the economy of the three West Coast states continues to maintain a strong upward momentum.

This caused many people who lost hope in the east and a large amount of capital to flow into the west coast. On the contrary, the west coast was able to absorb a wave of blood during this crisis.

However, this is just an appearance. In fact, the economic crisis in the East and Europe has also affected the West Coast region.

After all, the Eastern region and Europe are the two most important trading partners of the West Coast region. It is impossible to say that the economic crisis has no impact on the West Coast region at all.

Exports from the West Coast region were also affected by the economic crisis, which led to a slowdown in export growth in 1858. More than a dozen small and medium-sized railway companies were directly affected by the railway crisis and declared bankruptcy.

Fortunately, the West Coast region has already absorbed high-profit industries such as the petrochemical industry, machine tool industry, high-end machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding industry, and arms industry. These industries either directly or indirectly support a large number of people in the west. The petrochemical industry alone supports a population of at least 1.2 million people.

In addition, the current population of the entire western region is not very large, so these industries are enough to make the nearly 4 million westerners live a relatively comfortable life.

Furthermore, there is still a large amount of land that can be developed in the west, and the vast inland areas can be developed to expand living space through the eastward expansion movement, and the local economic crisis can be alleviated through outward expansion.

At the worst, they can follow the example of Britain and dump goods in colonial countries and regions to pass on the crisis.

Japan's market size cannot serve as a dumping ground for the entire United States, but it is more than enough for the western region.

What's more, the western region also has a trading partner in the Qing Dynasty with a terrifyingly large market.

The reason why California's economy has been able to stabilize is not because of Fremont's world-class talents.

After ten years of foundation building and hard work, California has accumulated many good cards.

As long as the people in power are normal people and don't mess around, the economy of California and even the entire West Coast region won't be that bad.

“Governing a state and governing a country are two completely different difficulties.” Liang Yao said, “Furthermore, the Civic Party’s influence is limited to a corner of the west, and its influence in the east is minimal. The votes are very limited. If we participate in the election, our party does not have high expectations for the results of the election.

I heard that Mr. Lincoln's recent speeches in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin and other places have been warmly received. The people in these areas hope that you can be nominated for a higher office. people. "

Liang Yao is not being modest. The political resources of the eastern states have long been controlled by aristocratic families from various places, as well as new local capitalists and large factory owners.

The Citizen's Party's expansion in the eastern region was generally not very smooth. It only made some progress in New York State, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas, and developed some party members there.

Politicians in the east inherently lack trust in the Citizen Party, whose base camp is on the west coast and most of the party members' skin color and appearance are very different from their own. You will only be very enthusiastic when doing business with them is profitable.

Liang Yao and most of the Kuomintang members did not show shame and lowered their status. They begged the losers of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party to join the Kuomintang and took this opportunity to strengthen the Kuomintang.

In his view, this is not to strengthen the Kuomintang and attract party members who lack recognition and trust and share political views, but to lay mines for the Kuomintang.

Furthermore, recruiting more eastern members would mean taking sides on the issue of slavery's survival and abolition, and at the moment, he did not want to take sides.

He understands what kind of grass-roots teams in the east are built with Angsa people as the main body. Even if the west openly supports the abolition of slavery and helps them win the future civil war, as long as the west itself is not strong enough, the next step they will consider is to rob the west. The cake in the hands of the Chinese requires sharing of the vested interests of the Chinese and even pro-China whites in the West.

What they did to the South today, they will do it again to the West.

In the face of economic interests, in order to obtain cheap raw materials and labor from the south, the Yankees in the north were ruthless to the Dixie people of the same skin color in the south, not to mention the yellow-skinned and black-haired Westerners. What's more, the industrial structure in the west is actually in competition with the north, with direct economic conflicts of interest.

At present, the west and the north can maintain a relatively harmonious state, not because northern politicians regard the west as their own, but because they have greater conflicts and contradictions to resolve and have no time to look west.

As Lincoln's popularity among the people increased, northern voters, especially those from the middle and lower classes, became increasingly vocal for Lincoln to obtain a higher office.

Of course, the candidates for higher positions mentioned by Liang Yao do not refer to the two high-power positions of president and vice president. Rather, he is the deputy to the Republican candidate.

Before the end of 1859, no one would associate Lincoln with a candidate for president or even vice president. Although Lincoln was already the de facto leader of the Republican Party at this time, he was the most influential member of the Republican Party among the people.

The root cause is that Lincoln came from a humble background. The political elite did not like him, and his own foundation in the political world was also very shallow.

Lincoln had neither a huge fortune nor a family legacy. Even at the age of knowing his destiny, Lincoln still had very limited administrative experience. He had not even served as governor of Illinois for one term. In addition, Lincoln's most impressive resume was only one term as a member of the House of Representatives, which was not very successful.

"I'm afraid a green fool like me would be hard-pressed to serve as a candidate's deputy." Lincoln said with a hearty smile, "I still lack enough political experience."

"But you are the founding hero of the Republican Party, and you have studied the Constitution quite a bit and have studied the works of the founding fathers." Liang Yao said.

“But I have no close friends in the densely populated eastern states, only a few ordinary friends. In ballot politics, dense population means more votes. If you cannot get the votes of the people in these densely populated eastern states, everything is empty talk. " said Lincoln.

He chose to give speeches in relatively sparsely populated inland areas such as Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin not because he cared about the development of frontier areas, but because he had to do so.

The influence of traditional aristocratic families in the densely populated eastern states is too strong. It is difficult for an outsider like him who has no foundation or strong political allies to steal food from these traditional aristocratic families and win local votes.

Furthermore, Lincoln himself had no confidence in running for president at this time, and his failure in the Senate race in 1854 was still fresh in his mind. It allowed him to see clearly the nature of American vote politics.

"Has the Republican presidential nominee not been determined yet?" Liang Yao asked.

"It has not yet been determined, but there are many strong candidates in our Republican Party." Lincoln said, "William Seward, Simon Cameron, Salmon Chase, are all very suitable candidates."

Lincoln mentioned the names of William Seward, Simon Cameron, and Salmon Chase, but did not mention himself. Liang Yao knew that Lincoln was hiding his strength and biding his time, retreating in order to advance, waiting for the opportunity, waiting for his competition. They make mistakes.

Liang Yao has always paid close attention to the trends of Lincoln and the Republican Party. He still has a certain understanding of these founding fathers and core backbones of the Republican Party.

William Seward is the former governor of New York and current senator. Before the dissolution of the Whig Party, he was a core member of the Whig Party. He also played a major role in the formation of the Republican Party. Many former members of the Whig Party looked to William for his support. ·Seward only joined the new party, the Republican Party, because of his reputation.

William Seward was born into a prominent local family in Orange County, New York. He needed connections and qualifications. As long as William Seward didn't make any principled mistakes, he would be the only candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. genus.

As for Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, he is the current senator and has been elected to the Senate for the second time. In terms of qualifications, he is more qualified to be the Republican candidate than Lincoln, and Simon Cameron has a keen political sense. But Simon Cameron has a fatal flaw, that is, he likes to make money. The Atlantic Railway Company was once asked for bribes by Simon Cameron.

The last strong contender for the overall nomination of the Republican Party is the current governor of Ohio, Salmon Chase. His experience is similar to that of Lincoln. He was born in poverty and entered the upper class through his own efforts. Salmon Chase and Lincoln were equally influential in the party. But Salmon Chase lacked Lincoln's charisma and political acumen.

Salmon Chase is a good candidate for governor and a good candidate for minister, but he lacks a big-picture perspective and is difficult to be qualified for the position of president.