Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 849: million new business

Morgan Jr. and McDonald did not bargain much over the conditions proposed by Chu Xiang. In cross-border trade, a profit of 10% or 20% is normal.

If they were engaged in the grain business, the profit might be only 5%. In order to satisfy Chu Xiangqian's need to recover a loss of 1 million US dollars, the import and export transaction amount would have to exceed 2 million US dollars.

This transaction volume is not easy to come by in this era.

China's exports to Hong Kong Island last year were only HK$15.57 billion.

The value of goods imported by China to the mainland through Hong Kong Island was only 800 million Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, it is not easy to create a $2 million business simply by exporting low value-added raw materials.

Morgan Jr. and McDonald would not really give Chu Xiangqian an import trade order of $2 million.

The two men agreed that the transaction amount could only be within 5 million, and it had to be what both of them needed, and the price had to be lower than that of the previous trader.

Otherwise they will have a hard time explaining to shareholders.

Chu Xiangqian just thought about it and decided to buy pearls and rubies.

These two kinds of gems can be refreshed in the Novice Village, which means you can make as much as you sell.

Moreover, gems do not involve any confidential information, nor are they strategic materials, so they will not be investigated or troubled.

But before discussing the price, Chu Xiangqian still had to let Morgan Jr. and McDonald see the finished product.

However, it was not convenient for Chu Xiangqian to take it out from the Novice Village warehouse now. After thinking about it, he took Little Morgan and McDonald into the car and drove all the way to the big house on the top of the mountain.

When the car arrived in Central, the two people, who already knew that Chu Xiangqian was going to take them home, hurriedly asked Zhang Tianzhi to drive the car to the mall first.

The practice of bringing gifts when visiting someone's home for the first time is the same in both the East and the West.

Moreover, because Chu Xiangqian is Chinese, Morgan Jr. and McDonald have learned about some of the Chinese habits and customs in the past year.

Chu Xiangqian was merely polite, but seeing that the two were very keen on buying gifts, he simply stopped being polite and asked Zhang Tianzhi to drive to Chow Tai Fook's Central flagship store.

Little Morgan and McDonald also suffered a lot. Chu Xiangqian had three wives, and the foreigners did not have a deep understanding of the difference between a principal wife and a concubine.

So in addition to Xue Jinglan, the gifts given by Gangsheng and Feifei were also very valuable.

Zheng Yutong rushed over after hearing the news, and seeing that the two foreigners had bought gold and jewelry worth more than one million Hong Kong dollars, he was immediately full of admiration for Chu Xiangqian.

This is the heir to the two major banking families in Magnesium and England. If it were him, Zheng Yutong, no one would even look at him.

But when it comes to Chu Xiangqian, not only do they get along with each other on an equal footing, but they also buy gifts worth millions of Hong Kong dollars for each of them, intending to give them to Chu Xiangqian's three daughters-in-law, his beloved son, Aiyuan, Ailin and his master.

It can be said to be very polite, but in fact, this gift exceeds the standard.

So Zheng Yutong now admires Chu Xiangqian even more.

While the two foreigners were choosing gifts, Chu Xiangqian mentioned to Zheng Yutong that they would reach cooperation with the two companies on pearls and rubies every year for the next three years.

Zheng Yutong became anxious after hearing this. Zhou Dafu had previously agreed with Chu Xiangqian on a pearl purchasing agreement of 2 million Hong Kong dollars per year.

Now Chu Xiangqian has opened up the markets in the United States and the United Kingdom. In order to earn US dollars and British pounds, Chu Xiangqian may face shortages in the future. Then Zhou Dafu will earn much less every year.

But Chu Xiangqian thought more.

He could indeed trade 5 million US dollars worth of pearls and rubies directly with J.P. Morgan Jr. and McDonald.

But if it goes through Zhou Dafu's jewelry company, although it will definitely make a few less points, that is, a few percent of profit, it can also save a lot of trouble.

At the same time, as Zhou Dafu becomes a transaction intermediary, the market value will definitely increase year by year.

As one of the major shareholders with a 30% stake in Chow Tai Fook, using a few percent of agency fees in exchange for an increase in Chow Tai Fook's market value is a good thing no matter how you look at it.

Moreover, when Zheng Yutong engages in real estate and other businesses in the future, he will definitely not dare to leave himself or Zhou Dafu's company and set up a new company on his own.

Zhou Dafu's market value may reach hundreds of billions of dollars in the future. Gold and jewelry seem to be its main businesses, but in fact, real estate is where the real money is made.

At the same time, Zheng Yutong is very conservative in the real estate industry and he is a firm believer in renting.

Every time a real estate project or community is developed, after earning back the development capital, a portion of the property will be retained for rent.

It is also thanks to the properties accumulated over the years that Zhou Dafu has a market value of over tens of billions of US dollars and has sufficient real estate to rely on to continue expanding in the jewelry industry.

Chu Xiangqian also knew that the future housing prices in Hong Kong Island would be the highest in the world, so he naturally tended to keep the properties in his hands rather than sell them all after development.

It can be said that the two people’s business plans are very similar in many aspects, which is why they get along so harmoniously.

As soon as he heard that Chu Xiangqian planned to use Zhou Dafu to complete the transactions with Morgan Jr. and MacDonald in the pearl, ruby ​​and even other jewelry business.

Zheng Yutong was so excited and ecstatic.

Not to mention the few points of profit earned from it, just the cooperation with the two banking families means that when there is a need for funds in the future, there is basically no need to worry about not being able to get a loan.

Not to mention that once the cooperation is reached, Zhou Dafu's fame will be greatly enhanced.

Zheng Yutong instantly felt that Chu Xiangqian was not only her benefactor, but also Zhou Dafu's pillar of support.

With him, there is no need to worry about development issues. For a moment, Zheng Yutong even wanted to step down and let others take over.

Unfortunately, Chu Xiangqian had no interest in running and managing a company, and he had many companies under his name, so he was not willing to work for Zheng Yutong.

He just laughed and scolded, telling Zheng Yutong not to be lazy, which made Zheng Yutong laugh and joke that it seemed that he was destined to work hard.

Although this was just a joke, it made Zheng Yutong feel more relieved.

Otherwise, he was really afraid that other shareholders of the company, and even the Zhou family, would vote for Chu Xiangqian to be the chairman.

Fortunately, they have known each other for many years, and Zheng Yutong knows Chu Xiangqian well.

It can even be said that basically all friends who are close to him know that Chu Xiangqian’s vision and ability to make money are indeed impressive, but he is a person who is very afraid of trouble.

When they get together to chat about company matters, Chu Xiangqian always focuses on the big picture and ignores the small details. In other words, he only cares about the company's development plan and does not participate in the company's specific operations.

In the eyes of entrepreneurs, this is the best venture capitalist.

Unfortunately, Chu Xiangqian does not invest in everyone. To put it bluntly, he dares to delegate so much power simply because he knows that people like Zheng Yutong will make the company bigger and bigger in the future.

Naturally, they are unwilling to get involved in the operations, lest their participation would have a counterproductive effect.

After Morgan Jr. and McDonald wrote the check to pay, Chu Xiangqian introduced Zheng Yutong to them.

At the same time, he made it clear that in the future, he would trade with them for pearl and ruby ​​business through Zhou Dafu.

Chu Xiangqian will hand over the funds to Zhou Dafu on the offshore island.

Then the pearls and rubies were handed over directly to Zhou Dafu, who would take a 4% commission, or $200 million. This money was not so easy to get, and there were many troubles involved.

Chu Xiangqian's task was simple. He would give Zhou Dafu pearls and rubies worth 5 million US dollars in batches every year, and the funds would also be transferred on the offshore island.

He didn't suffer any loss of his own, and he even helped Zhou Dafu.

After Zhou Dafu got the jewelry, he sorted, processed and sold it, and the money he made was actually from Morgan Jr. and McDonald.

The jewelry that Morgan and his partner obtained from the transaction would make a lot of profit once it was sold in Europe and the United States, so they naturally did not care about Chow Tai Fook's 4% agency fee.

When Morgan Jr. and McDonald were buying gifts just now, they had actually secretly discussed the pearl and ruby ​​business together.

In their minds, after getting the jewelry worth 5 million US dollars, it would not be difficult to make or million US dollars through their own channels.

If the quality of the pearls and rubies is good enough, it is not impossible to make double the money.

Just like high-end diamonds produced in Africa, they may only cost $1 before export, but when they reach the terminal sales stage in Europe and the United States, the price can rise to $5 or even $10.

Chu Xiangqian naturally understood this truth, so he never thought of buying low- and mid-end pearls and rubies for the two of them.

A few years ago, Chu Xiangqian sold a 14 mm South Sea pearl for 5 Hong Kong dollars, but now, Chu Xiangqian would definitely dare to ask for 1 Hong Kong dollars.

There are also 14 mm gold beads. In 61, Chu Xiangqian felt that the price of 5 pounds, equivalent to 20 US dollars at the exchange rate at that time, was already very high.

But now, without 30 US dollars, Chu Xiangqian would ignore the other party.

In other words, the transaction amount of 170 14 mm gold beads can reach 5100 million US dollars.

This is not Chu Xiangqian raising the price randomly. Firstly, the gold beads in the market are too rare. In recent years, because of the gold beads sold by Chu Xiangqian, they have appeared several times in the market or in the aristocratic circles.

The more that many noble ladies and powerful wives cannot afford it, the more envious and itchy they become.

The price was naturally driven up.

In addition, due to inflation in Europe and the United States, Chu Xiangqian felt that his offer was probably too low at $30 for a 14 mm gold bead.

There are even more precious red pearls, a pair of 12mm red pearls given to Margaret, which have already been estimated at 10 pounds for a single red pearl and 12 pounds for a pair of 25mm red pearls.
The price rose to 20 pounds for a single gem and 50 pounds for a pair, but Margaret refused to sell it.

At the exchange rate of that year, it was US$80 and US$200 million.

Of course, Margaret's identity played a role in this, but for Chu Xiangqian, both gold and red pearls were tools for making big money.

As for now, although the pound has fallen, coupled with inflation, it does not prevent Chu Xiangqian from selling at this price.

The sale of gold beads and red beads basically accounts for 5 to million US dollars a year, and the rest is sold as South Sea white pearls. A trade volume of million can be easily achieved.

And Chu Xiangqian can basically get all the money.

However, as the number of gold and red beads increases on the market, their prices may also fall.

But with the communication technology of this era, if only one or two are sold a year in the United States, London, and developed cities in Europe and Asia, the news may not even spread to other countries.

Moreover, during the auction, private auctions can also be held among wealthy circles.

It will be even harder to spread the news.

As for South Sea pearls, there are thousands or even tens of thousands of them every year, which will not affect the price at all.

Even if they are still affected, the worst that can happen is that we can use a one or two year price war to destroy the business of other pearl merchants.

When fewer people collect South Sea pearls, Chu Xiangqian will be able to make back all the money he lost in the previous price war.

Morgan Jr. and McDonald had investigated Chu Xiangqian before, and of course they knew that Zheng Yutong was Chu Xiangqian's collaborator.

Moreover, Zhou Dafu was in the jewelry and gold business, so the two foreigners naturally thought that the pearls and rubies in Chu Xiangqian's hands were related to Zhou Dafu and Zheng Yutong.

Rich people and capitalists are always kind, so even though the two foreigners looked down on Zheng Yutong in their hearts, they were very polite to him in their tone and expressions.

After some pleasantries, the topic inevitably turned to the diamond that Chu Xiangqian placed on Zhou Dafu.

Unfortunately, even though Morgan Jr. offered 2 million US dollars, Chu Xiangqian refused without hesitation.

Although there were many diamonds bigger than this one in the Novice Village warehouse, Chu Xiangqian did not dare to sell them recklessly.

Otherwise, the market and price of diamonds will inevitably be affected.

Chu Xiangqian would naturally not do anything that was not good for him.

After a while, Chu Xiangqian finally got into the car with the two foreigners. But before getting in the car, Chu Xiangqian also told Zheng Yutong that he would talk to him in detail about the pearl and ruby ​​in a few days.

Zheng Yutong naturally had no objection. After watching the convoy leave, he turned around and excitedly called his wife to tell her the good news.

Not to mention how happy the Zhou family was, the convoy soon reached the big house on the top of the mountain.

Little Morgan and MacDonald praised Xue Jinglan, Gangsheng and Feifei for their beauty.

This made Xue Jinglan and the other two feel a little shy, and they immediately had a better impression of Morgan and the other two.

However, although the two were polite in words, they were still thinking about the colorful pearls and top-grade rubies that Chu Xiangqian mentioned in the car.

After giving out the gifts, they drank some tea in the living room and then Chu Xiangqian took the two of them to his study.

Using the excuse of asking the two to sit for a while, Chu Xiangqian went into the inner study and pretended to wait for a while.

Then he took out 11 14mm gold beads and a pair of 2 red pearl earrings from the Novice Village warehouse.

There are also more than two dozen 12 mm gold, silver, pink and brown beads.

The biggest advantage of pearls produced in Novice Village is that they are of excellent quality, each one is round and large. And if it says 12 mm, it must be 12 mm.

So when Chu Xiangqian took out so many colorful pearls, the price did not drop due to the large quantity.

On the contrary, its value is increased because it can be made into a pair or a whole string of colorful pearl necklaces.

Although Morgan Jr. and McDonald did not know much about the pearl market, their vision and knowledge were far superior to those of ordinary people.

After seeing so many colorful beads, the two immediately realized that the pearl business might really make a lot of money.

Moreover, things are valuable because they are rare. If it was just an ordinary sea pearl, Chu Xiangqian would have to beg them both.

After all, the European and American markets and channels are controlled by these two companies.

But in front of Caizhu, Chu Xiangqian became the leader of this business.

(End of this chapter)