Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 863 Super Loan
After settling the relationship between his two wives, Chu Xiangqian lived a very comfortable life.

Perhaps because Margaret's first child was a son, she was always in a very good mood and had become more open-minded about some things.

So Chu Xiangqian took care of Chu Jingxing personally, while occasionally singing opera and playing cards with Margaret and Nata in the manor.

When the negative impact of the sharp drop in the pound sterling exchange rate caused the land prices in London to plummet by 40%, Chu Xiangqian also began to let Margaret and Nata look at houses in the prosperous areas of London.

The target is naturally those large buildings with good locations and large areas. It would be best if they were previously opera theaters, which can be converted into cinemas with a little renovation.

At this time, there was a panic over money in Ying's financial circles, import and export industries, related companies, and hereditary aristocratic circles.

No, it can be said that the entire Ying country is now short of US dollars.

'First' Wilson was forced into no choice a few days ago and had to send a trusted delegation to Washington to have a private talk with the Americans and get some assistance.

Unfortunately, Lyndon Johnson was busy with the presidential election at that time and had no intention of lending money to the British.

Even from the perspective of economic interests, the more Britain lacks foreign exchange, the more Wall Street can do.

Moreover, as the pound depreciates, the cost of purchasing goods and basic raw materials from abroad will increase, and the goods produced in Britain will become less competitive.

As a major manufacturing country with the fastest growing productivity and greater technological achievements since World War II, Magnesium snatched the export market from Britain without any hesitation.

So not lending money to the British is, to some extent, beneficial to Johnson's election campaign.

It can even be said that Johnson really dislikes Wilson, the first candidate of the Labour Party.

The reason is simple. Kennedy liked Lyndon Johnson, who was extremely rebellious in his heart, even though he didn't say it.

And to be honest, Kenny was framed by someone. By doing this, Johnson was hinting that he and Kenny were not of the same kind.

To a certain extent, it not only protects himself, but also wins over those forces that oppose Kenny.

To put it bluntly, apart from the fact that he really disagreed with Kennedy, many of Johnson's actions were for the sake of election.

After the team sent by Wilson returned to London from Magnesium in disgrace, not long after, even Philip and Eliza started to hold more banquets.

As a big money sponsor, Chu Xiangqian naturally received several invitations.

But Chu Xiangqian was not willing to lend money to Yingguo at this time, not to mention that he actually didn't like Wilson.

To put it bluntly, Chu Xiangqian has to pay more taxes in Ying State, and his employees will be more confident in causing trouble.

The latter is the biggest trouble that Chu Xiangqian and all farmers and ranchers cannot tolerate.

Just because you raise the wages of cowboys and farm workers won't mean that these people won't cause trouble.

The human heart is greedy and never satisfied.

Capital is not stupid. It knows that if it adds a few dozen dollars, the union will not strike again.

But if you agree easily, there is a 100% chance that they will make higher demands within a year or two, or even a few months.

Therefore, it is better to firmly refuse to agree. Even if both sides suffer losses, it will be beneficial to capital in the long run.

That's why there are so many strikes.

But although Chu Xiangqian didn't like Wilson, he admired him very much.

Wilson does not seem to be strong enough, and sometimes even too indecisive, but he is still very capable. He was elected as the first president of the British Empire four times, even though his time in power was not long each time, and each time he won was a narrow victory.

But he was active in British politics in the 60s and 70s. There is nothing wrong with calling him an evergreen and an outstanding politician.

Moreover, this person was anti-royal at first, but he soon compromised.

Although being two-faced is a basic skill for a witness, it is not easy to gain Elizabeth's approval in a short period of time.

This is not just about having good words. Eliza had experienced Churchill's teachings and was deeply influenced by him. She was able to force Churchill to give in later on. Her vision and ability in diagnosis and treatment were not low at this time.

More importantly, even though she doesn't have much real power, the leadership changes in Yingguo are too frequent.

To put it bluntly, you can only be in power for three to five years at most. At most, after you step down, you will have the opportunity to be elected again, but that will also only be for a few years.

But the king remains the king.

No matter how powerful or conceited a leader is during his tenure, he still has to consider his life after retirement.

Even if Eliza will not suppress you openly, but when she retires, giving you the title of knight will still give you more opportunities to appear in the media after you retire.

At the same time, more companies will be willing to hire the other party as a consultant or non-executive director.

And this means making more money.
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As the economy continued to be sluggish, the British people wanted to borrow money from their allies, but either they could not get the money or the conditions were too many and too harsh in the eyes of the British people.

Wilson had to go to Buckingham Palace to seek support and assistance from Eliza.

Chu Xiangqian didn't know what the two talked about because he didn't pay any attention to Wilson and Eliza.

Otherwise, Huang Diao'er is definitely the most powerful eavesdropper.

You don't even have to enter the room where the two people are talking; you can hear their conversation from 80 meters away.
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That day, Chu Xiangqian was holding the sleeping Chu Jingxing, standing next to Margaret and Nata.

Looking at the venue information and photos of the cinema that the two brought back.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

Margaret and Nata both frowned. They had been running around all over London's bustling areas in the past few days.

Only three suitable properties were found, not only were they cheap, but one of them was also a long-established opera house in London.

This 1600-year-old theater covers an area of ​​130 square meters and is located at the corner of Oxford Street. There is also a commercial square in front of the theater.

The flow of people is still quite large, but unfortunately fewer and fewer young people go to opera, so business is not very good to begin with.

Now with the Great British Pound Crisis, the owners can no longer bear it and can only sell unprofitable businesses such as the theater to ensure other businesses.

The theatre's geographical location is extremely advantageous. Last year, it would have been impossible to buy it without 400 million pounds.

At this price, you could buy the 5-acre Downton Abbey.

But at this time the owner's asking price was only 240 million pounds. If it could be paid in US dollars, it would only cost 630 million US dollars.

Converted into exchange rate, it is only 2.625, which is several points lower than the current market exchange rate.

Chu Xiangqian knew that in the second half of the year, the official exchange rate would stabilize at 1 to 2.8, and would not fall to 2.6 until three or four years later.

So Chu Xiangqian is quite satisfied with this opera house.

As for the other two, they are cinemas in themselves, and they are independent cinemas covering an area of ​​more than 8 and 9 square meters respectively.

One is right on Hyde Park Commercial Street, only about five or six hundred meters away from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge.

The other one is near Soho Square. Even if the cinema is no longer open in the future, it can be demolished and rebuilt into a high-rise building.

So Chu Xiangqian told Margaret and Nata from the beginning that it would be best to buy only those properties with independent entrances and exits.

Although the future housing prices in London will not rise as much as those in Central and Tsim Sha Tsui on Hong Kong Island, Chu Xiangqian wants to diversify his investments. In addition, London real estate will always be favored by wealthy people in the desert, Southeast Asia, and polar bears.

No worries about selling at all.

This is very crucial, otherwise it will be useless if you have a price but cannot sell it.

Moreover, the increase and price of housing prices are at least among the top cities compared with major cities in Europe and the United States.

The third is that Chu Xiangqian has money but does not invest in Ying Country, so people will not pay attention to you.

After purchasing more than 10,000 acres of farmland, his influence in Hampshire suddenly increased by several levels.

In addition to buying the property in full, they will also be merged in the future and eventually divided into five farms of varying sizes. In addition to taxes, they will also have to employ at least three to four hundred people.

During the busy harvest season, there are probably one to two thousand hourly workers hired.

This is already a big taxpayer and job earner in Hampshire.

Although Margaret's actions were often unreliable, this girl had been influenced by her surroundings since she was a child and knew how to win over witnesses.

Chu Xiangqian felt that many things that would cost 1 or tens of thousands of pounds to solve could save at least % to % if Margaret did it.

And his efficiency is much faster than Chu Xiangqian.

Therefore, Margaret's popularity and support have exploded recently in several southern counties of Ying State.

The happy Margaret didn't feel at all that Chu Xiangqian was treating her like a beast of burden.
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Margaret heard a knock on the door, and said to the person outside the door with a look of dissatisfaction on her face, "Come in."

Then the old butler Hawkins opened the door with a smile and said, "Your Highness, Sir, His Highness Feilipu is here to visit."

When Margaret heard that it was her brother-in-law, she just muttered a few words and stood up to go and greet him with Chu Xiangqian.

After Chu Xiangqian thought about it for a moment, he guessed that he was most likely here to beg for alms or to act as a lobbyist.

Sure enough, when Chu Xiangqian handed Chu Jingxing, who was sleeping in his arms, to the two maids.

After going out to greet him and chatting with Philip for a while, this guy took the initiative to ask to borrow 5 million US dollars for emergency.

Chu Xiangqian curled his lips, but before he could say no, Margaret spoke first, "Sorry, we have just negotiated with the owners of several cinemas and opera houses, and we will sign the contract in the next few days.

Let alone lending $5 million to Downing Street, even $1 million is difficult now.”

Philip rolled his eyes after hearing this. If Chu Xiangqian wasn't worried about borrowing too much money, it would be unlikely that he would agree.

This time, the loan is not just 5 million, but hundreds of millions.

As Chu Xiangqian's partner in the Neon Market, he is also a shareholder of Global International Shipping.

Philips more or less knew how much money Jie Chuxiang could make from the shipping and export business to Japan.

In addition, it has been almost two months since the pound sterling exchange rate plummeted. No matter how well Chu Xiangqian hides, he cannot escape the international investigation.

It is no secret to Philips that it has made at least hundreds of millions, or even $1.5 million, in foreign exchange profits.

Fortunately, Chu Xiangqian is his brother-in-law after all, and he can make money, so he will take his brother-in-law with him.

So whether it was Philip or Eliza, they really had no intention of cheating Chu Xiangqian when it came to borrowing money.

Of course, this actually has a lot to do with interests.

However, because Chu Jingxing was born, Chu Xiangqian injected most of his European and American industries into the family fund.

Among the beneficiaries, in addition to Chu Xiangqian himself, there were also Margaret and Chu Jingxing, which also made old ladies Eliza and Maria's favor for Chu Xiangqian increase dramatically.

Even if Chu Xiangqian's business runs into problems in the future, the family fund will not be implicated by him, so the royal family won't have to worry about Margaret's future life.

This, to a large extent, helped Eliza relieve a lot of her burden.

Moreover, Margaret's life was good, so she no longer thought about competing with her sister from time to time and always caused trouble like in the past.

Seeing that Margaret was wholeheartedly protecting her man, Philip did not say anything more, knowing that Chu Xiangqian was still the one who made the decision.

He took out his trump card and said to Chu Xiangqian, “Stark, $5 million for 5 years, 12% annual interest.

In return, Wilson promised to privately give you five national treasure-level antiques from the Celestial Empire.

Even if you return these five national treasures to the Celestial Empire at the right time in the future, we will cooperate with you and ensure that you will not be in any trouble."

Chu Xiangqian knew the last sentence was a threat, but he didn't care much about it.

I can keep my business dealings with the Celestial Empire a secret for a while, but I can't keep it a secret from the outside world forever.

Just looking at the Indian side, Chu Xiangqian was certain that sooner or later the trade in light industrial products such as bicycles and watches would be known to the British and American people.

As for the impeachment of submarines and computers, Chu Xiangqian believed that the British people really had evidence, or they were just suspicious, and the person who came to the door was not Philips.

In addition to the threats, Chu Xiangqian also realized that the Yingguo people actually didn't care whether he wanted to improve relations with the Celestial Empire.

I tried to borrow money from the Chinese but couldn’t.

Asking allies for money, there are a lot of harsh conditions, and the British are the troublemakers again.

You may be nice to the Chinese people today, but they may stab you in the back tomorrow.

On the contrary, the Chinese people in Taiwan also try to win over and suppress the Chinese people in Taiwan.

This made Chu Xiangqian vaguely feel that perhaps the Ying people themselves wanted to ease the confrontation with the Celestial Empire.

To engage in confrontation while doing business is in line with the capitalist approach.

In World War I and World War II, the magnesium guys made money on both ends. When both sides were exhausted, the magnesium guys started to withdraw.

As for why the two world wars ended in a fight against the Germans, the reason is very simple: the Germans wanted to unify the European continent.

This is an outcome that the Chinese people of Magnesium and Britain will never accept.

Chu Xiangqian only thought about it for a dozen seconds and then shook his head. The five national treasures were like a weak spot in his heart, but as long as he was willing to spend money, there were plenty of national treasures scattered overseas.

Chu Xiangqian thought that it was too arrogant and perfunctory to think that he could solve the problem with just 5 items.

But for Philips, as long as Chu Xiangqian was willing to talk, it was Wilson's business as to how many national treasures he gave him.

In the end, even if the news came out, it would have nothing to do with him. It could even be considered a card used by the royal family to hold Wilson in their hands.

If this gets known by the media, he probably won't step down because there are plenty of scapegoats.

A decline in the support rate is inevitable.

Moreover, it was Philip who helped him to raise the 5 million in the first place, so Wilson would definitely owe him a big favor in the future.

(End of this chapter)