Beiyang reactionaries

Just look at the number of votes the Nazi Party won in Reichstag.Two years ago, the Nazi party held less than 3% of the votes in Congress, but in just two years, the vote rate has soared nearly tenfold.

This was the basis of public opinion for Hitler to come to power.

The situation in the United States is also very bad.Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, Hoover has said every day that this is only a technical issue, not an economic issue.There is no economic crisis in the United States, and the American economy will soon be able to get out of depression.

But he has been talking nonsense for a year, and the US economy shows no sign of getting out of the quagmire.On the contrary, the current US economy is getting worse and worse, with more and more bankrupt companies and more and more unemployed workers.Even many scientific research institutes have begun to lay off staff and reduce salaries.It is really because the funding of these scientific research institutes has decreased rapidly.

But what was Hoover doing?

He still can't find any solution to the crisis.He still believes in liberal economics and believes that the market is omnipotent and can solve all problems.

He is counting on the invisible hand to solve the current economic crisis.But the result is that in such a depressed economic environment, it will take years for the invisible hand to correct the economic crisis.But the people in China can't wait for the invisible hand to play a role.The result is that the economic situation in the United States is getting worse and worse.

In the case of European and American countries, China and the Soviet Union are stepping up the purchase of machinery and equipment from European and American countries.Although the two sides have not broken their faces, it is a competition between you and me in the international market, and it is even a life-and-death competition in the invisible field.

When the prime minister's office meeting decided to suppress the first five-year plan of the Soviet Union, China quickly introduced a series of measures against the Soviet Union.

The first area of ​​contention is the loan field.

Both China and the Soviet Union began to actively contact European and American financial institutions, preparing to take their remaining funds and prepare loans from them to make up for the insufficient foreign exchange.Use this loan to buy machinery and equipment from European and American countries and complete the industrial construction of your own country.China and the Soviet Union competed fiercely in the United States. In the end, China defeated the Soviet Union and obtained the first loan.

On September 1930, 9, as the head of the Chinese delegation, Ren Hongjun signed an amazing loan contract with a consortium of American banks headed by Morgan & Co.

The total value is 3.8 million US dollars.

These are rare loans in the United States.

Especially after the United States fell into the Great Depression, such a large loan was the first time.In this era, 3.8 million US dollars is not a small amount, and many countries do not have such a large amount of foreign exchange reserves.

Now that the economic crisis has broken out, many companies in the United States want loans to tide over the current difficulties.However, American financial institutions do not trust these people, so they are unwilling to give them loans.It is really because of the fierceness of the Great Depression this time, which shocked all European and American countries and businessmen.

No one expected that the economy would have such a serious situation.It is the first time for these European and American financial institutions to see such a serious economic crisis, which makes them dare not make casual assessments of the general environment, and even many financial institutions are very pessimistic about the current economic judgment.Under such circumstances, how dare they give loans to those companies.After the loans are released, if they cannot be recovered, they will be the next to go bankrupt.

Fortunately, China and the Soviet Union are currently strengthening the import of European and American machinery and equipment.More importantly, they all lack foreign exchange.Therefore, they are all willing to mortgage important domestic assets for loans, so European and American financial institutions are very willing to cooperate with China and the Soviet Union.

But still the same.

Loans are bound to be risky, and now they are like frightened birds, not daring to lend money at will.And their funds are not unlimited, their funds are limited.Loans to China, there is no share of the Soviet Union.Loans to the Soviet Union, there is no China's share.In other words, there is no other party's share in a short period of time.

They are prudent in lending, and it is impossible for them to lend out all the money at once.They need to evaluate, look at the results after the loan, and assess the current economic situation.So they need a safe party with good terms to borrow money from.In the competition between China and the Soviet Union, China quickly stood out.

As far as China and the Soviet Union are concerned, under the current situation, China is far more suitable for investment and loans than the Soviet Union.Although capitalists only have profits, they are still very cautious and worried about the Soviet Union.

After all, the Soviet Union was the first socialist country in the world, and the Marxist theory they believed in was completely opposite to the current capitalist countries.Theoretically, the relationship between the two parties is truly a life-and-death relationship.The theory that the Soviet Union believed in was to achieve global communism and eliminate these capitalists.In such a situation, European and American capitalists and the Soviet Union are in natural opposition.

In comparison, China is a bit of a hodgepodge.

China is currently very backward in terms of social theory, and is far behind European and American countries and the Soviet Union, which have relatively complete political and economic theories.Many of China's current policies are derived from China's thousands of years of traditional culture, plus "hybrid products" after absorbing the theories of Western countries after the Opium War.If it is true, China's current theoretical construction is seriously backward, and more people believe in pragmatism.But precisely because of this, theoretically, there is no life-and-death situation between China and the capitalist countries in Europe and the United States.

Tracing history, the Soviet Union has even less advantage over China.When the Soviet Union was established, the assets of European and American countries in the Soviet Union were confiscated.For example, most of the main oil plants in the Soviet Union were invested and constructed by European and American countries during the Tsarist Russia period.Including the mines in the Far East, most of them are invested and constructed by European and American capitalists.After the establishment of the Soviet Union, they were all confiscated.The biggest contradiction between Britain and the Soviet Union for many years is that the Soviet Union confiscated too many British assets.Britain invested a large amount of money in the Soviet Union during the Tsarist Russia era, and many important factories in the Soviet Union were owned by the British.However, the Soviet Union confiscated these assets, and Britain suffered huge benefits.Therefore, Britain has been asking the Soviet Union to spit out those assets.

But China is different.

Since the Revolution of [-], China has never confiscated the assets of foreign businessmen at will.During the First World War, the German assets confiscated by China were returned to Germany after the war.Therefore, from a security point of view, China is far better than the Soviet Union.

When the Soviet Union was established, it defaulted on many loans.European and American financial institutions have not hesitated, what if the Soviet Union loses their money again?

Historically, they had no choice but to choose the Soviet Union.But it's different now, with China's participation, in all aspects, China has more credibility than the Soviet Union.

Furthermore, China's collateral is far better than that of the Soviet Union.The Soviet collateral is the minerals and food they are currently exporting.But now mineral and grain prices fluctuate greatly, which can be said to be very unstable.Including the oil exported by the Soviet Union to Europe, the price of oil also dropped significantly after the Great Depression began.

These can indeed be used as collateral.

But when China also began to compete for loans, China's collateral far exceeded that of the Soviet Union.China has mortgaged three major railways in China, namely the Beijing-Shanghai Railway (Beijing to Shanghai), the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway (Beijing to Guangzhou), and the Beijing-Harbin Railway (Beijing to Harbin).

These three railways are China's north-south artery railways.

All three railways are currently overloaded with high profits every year.Unlike China a hundred years later, there are still very few railways in China.Therefore, there are too many things to bear on the railways of these major arteries.The railway construction plan of the Second Five-Year Plan is precisely to solve this problem.

For the loan, China mortgaged the three railways to a consortium of American banks.Not only these three railways, China also mortgaged the largest tungsten mining plant in China, the tungsten mining site located in the border area of ​​Hunan and Jiangxi, to a consortium of American banks.

If it weren't for the mortgage of so many important things, how could China have defeated the Soviet Union and lent an amazing loan of 2.8 million US dollars from a consortium of American banks headed by Morgan.

If you can't pay back the money on time, these things will be confiscated by them.Not to mention a few major railways, the tungsten mining group in the Hunan-Jiangxi border area alone has made a lot of money.Because the tungsten mining group in this area has an annual output of more than [-] tons of tungsten ore, it is the largest tungsten ore production base in the world.If the U.S. financial group can grasp this, it can make a lot of money by reselling it.

Of course not just because the collateral is good.

China and the Morgan consortium have deeper cooperation.It is said to be a loan, but in fact the money will not go back to China at all, and will continue to be placed in the banks under the Morgan consortium.And most of this money will be used for factory orders under the Morgan consortium.

To put it bluntly, the American bank consortium led by the Morgan consortium only literally gave loans to China.The money is still sitting in their bank accounts.Moreover, China used this loan, and most of China's orders fell into the hands of the Morgan consortium.

Because the use of this loan is mainly concentrated in metallurgy, telephone and telegraph, and electricity.In these respects, the Morgan Consortium is number one in the world.

At present, several large groups in the United States are all under the Morgan consortium.For example, U.S. Steel, the world's largest steel group, General Electric, the world's largest electrical manufacturer, and AT&T, the largest telephone and telegraph company in the United States, are all controlled by the Morgan consortium.

The Morgan Consortium is currently the largest financial consortium in the United States. They not only control American finance, but also control the American steel industry, railway industry, electrical industry, and so on.

And these are exactly what China needs to build.

Therefore, this loan is also used in the order of the Morgan consortium.The Morgan consortium makes money left and right, making money by lending money and making money by accepting orders.And because this money will not leave the bank under the Morgan consortium, it can also ensure the abundance of funds in the bank and the stability of the Morgan consortium.It can be described as killing three birds with one stone.

While Ren Hongjun signed a loan agreement with an American financial institution headed by the Morgan Consortium, he also contacted the American investment company Goldman Sachs Group.

"Mr. Weinberg, what do you think?"

"Mr. Ren, you should know that we are an investment bank that deals in stocks."

Sidney Weinberg was a little surprised.

Looking at the cooperation agreement brought by Ren Hongjun, I was very puzzled and didn't quite understand what Ren Hongjun meant.Goldman Sachs Group, a hundred years later, is a well-known existence in the United States.At that time, Goldman Sachs did not dare to say that it could cover the sky with one hand in the U.S. financial market, but it was definitely an existence that called the wind and rain.How many big names in speculative institutions in the world came from Goldman Sachs.

But not now.

Goldman Sachs is now a failed investment bank on Wall Street, or even a company facing bankruptcy.Goldman Sachs introduced the stock business in the 20s and established Goldman Sachs Stock Trading Company.After that, Goldman Sachs developed rapidly and became a well-known top investment company in the United States in a short period of time.At that time, Goldman Sachs was very popular on Wall Street.

Unfortunately, because it is too aggressive, most of the asset allocation is in the stock market.When the economic crisis came, the U.S. stock market crashed, and Goldman Sachs suffered heavy losses.When Goldman Sachs' share price was the highest, it exceeded $200, but now Goldman Sachs' share price has fallen to one dollar.The company's reputation also plummeted on Wall Street, becoming the laughing stock of Wall Street and synonymous with mistakes, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.Goldman Sachs, which had a great reputation on Wall Street, is now in a precarious situation.

That's the situation at Goldman Sachs right now.

Sidney Weinberg, the newly appointed president of Goldman Sachs, is very cautious, because Goldman Sachs may go bankrupt if it is not careful, so he is under a lot of pressure.The situation is unfavorable, and the strategy he chooses is conservative.

No longer involved in some high-risk industries.

But the risks and benefits are directly proportional.The more risky something is, the higher the potential profit inside.The conservative strategy is good, but it also completely tied the hands of Goldman Sachs.

But neither could Sidney Weinberg.

Now the general environment is not good, and many industries are not making money.At this time, a company like Goldman Sachs that is facing bankruptcy is not qualified to take risks. It would be good to keep Goldman Sachs from bankruptcy.The failure of an adventure may destroy Goldman Sachs forever.