1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 11 Entrepreneurship

In a blink of an eye, Rockefeller has been working in Hewitt Tuttle for more than a year. With his five-dollar salary every Friday, Rockefeller saved more than three hundred dollars. This is not easy, because it means that Rockefeller The cost per week is only about one dollar. This is not just Rockefeller’s expense alone, but Rockefeller’s at least one Little Brother expense—Bill’s money is always missing and unreliable.

This money is enough for living a life, but it is far from enough for investment and entrepreneurship. At this time, the money needed to create a company is not much, but three or four thousand dollars is still needed. Rockefeller felt that he needed to work for a few more years before he could start chasing his own dream. However, at this time, an encounter changed everything.

This day is Sunday, and Rockefeller and Scrooge continue to volunteer in the church as before. After the service began, they sat down on the bench in the corner of the auditorium as usual and listened to Pastor Thompson’s sermon. At this time, a man walked up to Rockefeller, took off his hat, nodded towards him, and then sat down on the bench.

Scrooge saw that Rockefeller also nodded to the man-apparently they knew each other, but because the pastor was preaching, the two did not speak.

The pastor’s sermon was extraordinarily lengthy and had no religious beliefs, but he pretended to be pious. He sat there bored, listening to the pastor telling those old bible stories. Well, today’s talk is Galilee. The wedding banquet in Cana, well, this was the first miracle performed by Jesus Christ. During the wedding banquet, the host’s family had no wine, so Jesus asked people to pour water into the wine jar, and the water became wine.

“This story is really unscientific.” Scrooge thought boredly. “Father Thompson’s sermon is also very poor. Well, Zosima Elder in “Brother Karamazov” seems to have preached in this chapter too. Father Thompson’s sermon was much better. Well, at the wedding banquet in Cana of Galilee, the host didn’t even have enough wine. This must be a very poor poor man. Most of the Baptists were also poor. Jesus’ first miracle It’s for the poor, and I can’t even grasp this…”

However, even though he disagrees with the pastor’s sermon in his heart, and even thinks that he might be stronger when he goes up, in order to maintain his appearance as a devout believer, Scrooge still has to sit honestly, watching the sun through the church boredly. The mottled light and shadow cast by the stained glass moved slowly with the passage of time. I don’t know how long it took. Finally, it was noon, and Father Thomp ended his lengthy sermon.

“Amen!” Rockefeller finished the last word with the priest, then turned and said to the man who had just walked over and sat next to her:

“Clark, why are you here? Didn’t you go back to England?”

“John, I think what you said before is more reasonable. United States does have more opportunities than the United Kingdom.” The man replied with a smile.

This person is Morris Clark. He is an English born in United States. He was a classmate of Rockefeller when he was in business school, but his age is ten years older than Rockefeller-unlike Rockefeller, he has been working several times. I went to the business school to receive training after years. After graduation, Clark returned to England, so Rockefeller lost contact with him.

“Why, what are your plans for coming back?” Rockefeller continued to ask.

“There are some plans, but let’s talk about these things outside the church, otherwise, maybe Christ will angrily drive us out of the temple.” Morris Clark said.

After entering the temple in Jerusalem, the first thing Jesus did was to drive out the people doing business in the temple. As a “religious believer” now, it is indeed inappropriate to talk about business in the church. So all three stood up and left the church.

Chinese people have a habit, that is, they like to talk about business at the wine table. In fact, many foreigners do the same. But now these three guys are a bit stingy, so even though it’s time for lunch, they didn’t find a hotel to eat and talk, but talked directly on the street outside the church.

“Well, Clark, talk about your plans.” Rockefeller said.

“I want to set up a company that specializes in grain trading. You know, most of the land in England is used as pasture, and the area used to grow wheat is very small, so the supply of wheat in England is largely dependent on imports. And land The gold price of Europe is different. United States has land to be developed, so the price of wheat produced in United States can always be lower than that in Europe. Even if the transportation cost is added, the price will still be lower than that in Europe. So resell from United States I think it’s a profitable business to sell wheat and the like to Europe. It’s just that my current principal is not enough, so I’m looking for a partner. John, I noticed you when I was studying in business school. , You are the most serious of all the classmates and the one who has the most questions. In addition, I also inquired about your recent situation. Many people engaged in this business praised you for your ability. So I found you. I think, you don’t Will you really plan to hire someone else forever? I have two thousand dollars on hand. As long as you can raise the same number, we can build the company and be our own boss! The current economic situation is so good, almost done Any business can make money. We must seize this opportunity and don’t let this age down! How about it, John?” Clark said urgently, staring into Rockefeller’s eyes.

“But.” Rockefeller shook his head, thought for a while and said, “Clark, I don’t have so much money right now.”

“John, how much money do you have now?” Clark didn’t give up.

“I only have three hundred dollars.” Rockefeller shook his head helplessly, “It’s too bad.”

“It’s really too bad…” Clark’s tone was full of regret.

“John, I remember Bill Uncle said that when you turn 21, he will give you a thousand dollars.” Scrooge suddenly interjected, “You can try to pre-prescribe the money to him. If you are willing to pay interest, and Bill Uncle really has the money, he will definitely be willing to lend it to you. In addition, Mr. Clark, if you can wait, in two months, I can also put out two thousand U.S. dollar funding.”

“This… sir?” Scrooge is still a child who is just 12 years old. Clark once regarded him as Rockefeller’s Little Brother. He knew that Rockefeller had two Little Brothers, but he had never seen him. them. Now the little child suddenly spoke, claiming that he could come up with two thousand dollars at once. In a shocking situation, Clark actually used the name “Mr.” for such a child.

“This is my neighbor, Scrooge McDonald. Well, you must not think of him as a child, he is a genius, a real genius.” Rockefeller said.

“Can you really come up with two thousand dollars?” Clark stared at Scrooge with a scrutiny gaze, and looked up and down Scrooge’s clothes, as if he didn’t quite believe it. Indeed, two thousand US dollars was not a small figure at the time. You must know that at that time, an average worker’s weekly income was only about two US dollars. It would be fine if Scrooge was wearing high-end, high-end, high-end clothing, but this suit of Scrooge’s body, um, although it was washed very clean, it was made of very thick and durable fabrics-yes The children of Qian’s family don’t wear such things.”Scrooge’s father is the best shoemaker here, and his family is much better than mine.” Rockefeller saw Clark’s doubts, so he explained in a half-joking tone, “And Scrooge is very capable, now I have finished my middle school studies and started to help Uncle Joseph manage his business.”

Shoemakers often have to deal with things like leather potions, so it is natural to wear such a coarse cloth. And as a shoemaker, Old Joseph was somewhat famous. Clark had a pair of leather shoes that he made to order in Old Joseph’s shop. If it was the son of Joseph Sr., if he was really as capable as Rockefeller said, then he might really be able to spend two thousand dollars.

“Two months? This shouldn’t be a problem.” Clark said. “John, if you can get that 1,300 dollars, plus Scrooge’s 2,000, we have 5,300 dollars. , This is enough for us to build a small company. And within two months, maybe I can get some more money out.”

“Well, I will go back and discuss with my father to see if I can advance the money. In any case, I will give you an answer in a week.” Rockefeller said at last.

After bidding farewell to Clark, Rockefeller returned home and immediately wrote a letter to own father, asking him for the $1,000, and promising him that he could give him twice the interest rate of the bank. Rockefeller believed that such conditions should be able to impress Bill.

Three days later, Bill replied to Rockefeller. He told Rockefeller that if he was given a month, he could help Rockefeller raise ,000, but he could not lend him the money for a long time. At most one year later, Rockefeller This money must be returned to him, of course, interest is also essential.

A few days later, Rockefeller, Scrooge and Clark got together again and formally signed a letter of intent for cooperation.

Two months later, a new enterprise engaged in food distribution was formally established. The history of the descendants of United States made such a record of the establishment of this company

“The Clark MacDonald Rockefeller Company, which was established on this day, is not a stable and long-lived company. In fact, only one year after its establishment, one of the three main investors of this company put their main energy on Going to other businesses and withdrawing most of own assets from the company, and a few years later, one of the company’s promoters, Clark, was also squeezed out of the company, and the company’s name and business direction also occurred. Great changes… But this company called Clark McDonald Rockefeller Company is definitely a legend in the history of United States, because the two richest and most influential people in United States history started from this company. of.”