1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 19 The Fallen Captain

The uncle continued to tell the story to his own daughter. The content was nothing more than the Mexicans cowardly attacking. Then they used carbines, pistols, and sabers, um, mainly sabers, and made those Mexican scums behave again in minutes.

“That’s a Mexican cavalry team with a little more than we might be. They are probably performing the same task as ours. The cowards shot at us as soon as they saw us. Well, you know, they have Those tattered guns simply can’t hit this far, and you can hear the sound when you shoot at this distance. We are different. We directly drew out our sabers and rushed towards the group of cowards. Grant rushed to the front and I was tight. Follow him…”

“Dad, you are not brave than Grant Uncle.” Little Loli said, “Every time in your story, Grant Uncle always rushes in front of you.”

“That’s because Grant is small and lighter, so the horse carrying him runs faster.” The uncle defended, and then went on to tell his story.

“Those Mexican cowards were shocked as soon as they saw the sparkling sabers. They turned their horses and ran. Some guys even lost their guns in order to run faster. But when their horses turned around At that time, we had already rushed forward, and I picked up the knife and cut over one directly…”

In fact, as the train shook rhythmically, little Loli was already a little sleepy. After listening to a story, little Loli hugged her father’s arm and fell asleep directly.

“I’m sorry to disturb you reading.” The uncle saw that his daughter was asleep, so he said to Scrooge and Rockefeller with a look of embarrassment.

“It’s okay, in fact, what you say we love to listen to, isn’t it, John?” Scrooge said.

“Yes.” Rockefeller said, “I didn’t expect that we would meet a fighting hero here.” Rockefeller also said so as Scrooge meant.

“Hero?” The uncle sighed and shook his head slightly, but said nothing more.

“Uncle, where are you going?” Scrooge asked.

“Oh, my daughter and I are going to Cleveland.”

“What a coincidence, we are also going to Cleveland,” Scrooge said. “Are you traveling or visiting relatives?”

“No, it’s going to work. There is an equestrian club in Cleveland that needs a riding instructor. They learned that I had worked in the cavalry before, so they gave me such a job.” The uncle’s voice was very low.

Scrooge understood what the uncle meant. Riding coaching was not a very good profession. The profession at the time was not as high-end and foreign as people think now. It was just a kind of manual labor, um, except It’s up to him to teach people to ride horses and raise horses. Of course, it’s better than carrying bags at the dock, but if it compares with the job Rockefeller quit not long ago, it’s a lot worse. How could a cavalry officer who had made military merits in the US-Mexico war do such a job at such an age?

“We are from Cleveland. Which equestrian club are you in? I want to learn how to ride a horse, too.” Scrooge continued.

“Cleveland Dragoon Club, if you want to learn, you can come to me, oh, I haven’t asked your names yet. My name is Robson, captain of the retired cavalry.” The uncle replied.

“My name is Scrooge, and the guy opposite is John, um, John Rockefeller.” Scrooge also introduced himself to him.

“Nice to meet you.” Captain Robson nodded to them.

So the three people continued to talk. Scrooge and Rockefeller learned that Captain Robson, because he talked nonsense to reporters during the war, actually talked about how the United States army slaughtered Mexican civilians, although the reporter’s report did not Talking about this matter, he was still severely reprimanded by his superiors. Once the war was over, he was kicked out of the army.

“Oh, I’m all to blame. I was young at the time, so I dared to say anything.” Captain Robson exclaimed.

In fact, Robson’s misfortune is not limited to this one. Two years ago, his wife got a serious illness. Although Robson saved his wife and spent almost all his savings, he even carried debts. But his The wife was summoned by God and left, leaving him with a son and a daughter in this world.

“What about your son?” Rockefeller asked.

“Oh, he was a sailor on a sea boat. I haven’t seen him for more than half a year.” Robson replied.

After burying his wife, Captain Robson began to do business with them, so that they could repay debts and support the family with the money earned from doing business. At the beginning, his luck was good, and his business went smoothly. Although the money he earned could not make him rich, he was still rich enough to have enough food and clothing. However, he didn’t want to. A week ago, a storm suddenly came, and the price of food was almost high. The diving speed plummeted. This storm broke Robson, and if it weren’t for his son and daughter, he almost had the thought of suicide.

Fortunately, one of his former friends happened to pass by from Chicago, and came to visit him. After learning about his plight, it was like he introduced the equestrian club…

In fact, after listening to Robson’s story, Rockefeller is also quite concerned. If Scrooge hadn’t first noticed the problem of oversupply of food, maybe he would have suffered heavy losses in the food trade like Captain Robson. So he once again took out his own small notebook and marked it with a sentence: “Don’t be fooled by the hot market, always be vigilant, whether the supply has exceeded the demand. The better the market situation, the more vigilant!”

Only a few days after returning to Cleveland, the impact of the collapse of food prices began to appear, first of all, the transportation system, because the food is worthless, naturally there is no need to ship it out for sale. When the profit from buying food in Europe is not even enough to support freight, who else will hire ships? So, now the pier near the canal is coldly clear, and almost all the ships have dropped anchors and lowered their sails. The sailors also left the ship, swaying around the pier. Since they can’t get out of the sea, these sailors naturally have no wages. However, the sailors used to pay quickly and spend more money. In addition, most of them are stubborn. Now they are suddenly out of money, so there are more and more fights and robberies.

Not only shipping, but the railway also followed up with problems. Grain was no longer transported, and a lot of wagons were vacated. The reduction in transportation demand has reduced the demand for new railways and locomotives. The reduction in demand for these has made it impossible to sell European steel and other things, and then one after another, almost all industries All fell into a panic.

Scrooge was prepared for such a panic. Scrooge knew that the crisis of the financial system was about to come, but he was not in a panic now, because he had already exchanged US dollars for gold. At this time, gold is still reliable.

In such an economic situation, the current regular business of the company in which Clark, Scrooge and Rockefeller are a joint stock is of course not much better. Fortunately, unlike other companies, they did not stock up on high-priced food before, so compared to other similar companies, they are not bad, although they are not too profitable, but under Rockefeller’s efforts, it did not lose money.

“This crisis will continue for some time. During this time, it is enough for the company to be able to maintain.” At the company’s shareholder meeting, Scrooge said straightforwardly.

Because of the previous success in short-selling food, both Clark and Rockefeller are now a little bit stubborn. But Rockefeller still said:

“Scrooge, can you analyze with me why you made such a judgment?”

“Ah, this is a long story.” Scrooge smiled, “I’ll be as brief as possible.”

“Well, have you ever thought about it, what is in the price of a commodity?” Scrooge asked.

“Contains those things?” Clark hadn’t figured it out yet.

“I think that the selling price of a product should be equal to the final profit plus the wages we send plus some other costs. This is applicable to any company or a product. For this, you have Questions?”

Rockefeller thought for a while, then looked at Clark again, then shook his head together and said, “This is no problem.”

“Considering the so-called other costs, it is the price of buying goods from other companies. For example, if we want to ship a ship of grain to New York, it includes the price of local grain, transportation, and labor. Transportation and labor are all provided by other companies. Therefore, if you look at the whole world, the total price of the world’s goods is equal to the total profit plus the total wage. This conclusion is not a problem, right?”

This time, Rockefeller took a little longer, then nodded and said, “That’s it, no problem!”

“However, there will be a serious problem here.” Scrooge paused for a moment. “Wage alone does not buy all the goods. Profit must also be added to the purchase to balance production and sales. But how can profit be used entirely for consumption? So the question arises. Well, John, do you see where the problem is?”

Rockefeller thought for a while, and finally said: “That means, in any case, there are always some products that can’t be sold?”

“Very good! Then think about it if you find that you have goods that you can’t sell, what will you do?”

“Reduce production and reduce losses.” Rockefeller said.

“Very well, that means you are going to lay off employees?”

“Of course. I can’t support the workers at a loss.”

“Well, you are not the only one who thinks this way, others will think the same way. As a result, the total wages are less and the goods are more unsellable, so one step closer-and then the vicious circle. This is the economic crisis!”