Chapter 528 Giant South China Sea Crocodile

  Some kind of people may have been pointed by God’s golden finger and destined to reverse the trend of history. Isaac Newton is one of them.

Relying on "gravitation", "Newton's law" and "calculus", Newton became a famous figure when he was alive, but in addition to scientific achievements, Newton also made a huge turn in London finance and maritime trade. .

  In 1696, Newton received a job invitation from a Cambridge classmate and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Montague to take up the work of recasting the currency of the Royal Mint.

  Coin technology originated in ancient Rome and became perfect during the Edward I period. In the era when precious metals were used as currency in circulation, officials would regularly recover damaged currencies from the private sector, melt gold, silver, and copper before recasting them.

Since the Middle Ages, the United Kingdom, like other countries on the European continent, has implemented a duplicate standard system in which both gold and silver coins are used as standard currencies at the same time. Gold and silver coins can be freely circulated and bought and sold in the market. Most of the time, silver coins are used as the main payment. Currency, gold coins are used as auxiliary currencies. But by the end of the seventeenth century, the number of silver coins on the British market had shrunk greatly, seriously affecting the stability of the monetary system.

When Newton went to the Mint, it was a bit of an order of danger. At that time, the United Kingdom used real gold and silver to make currency, but at that time the price of gold and silver in the United Kingdom was higher than that of France on the other side of the Strait. So illegal merchants discovered the mechanism of arbitrage: melting British silver coins. Into silver bullion, go to France to buy gold, and then transport the gold back to the UK, you can exchange for more silver coins. When this phenomenon intensified, there was a serious silver outflow and a shortage of currency in the UK. At the same time, counterfeit and bad coins took the opportunity to flood the market, and the production and trading of counterfeit coins formed an extremely active underground industry.

At that time, Britain was in the midst of war. The Chinese should be very curious about why there were so few Westerners. Before the great plague of 1665, Britain was busy fighting for the right to trade with the sea coachman, Holland. After the great plague, it first went to war with the Netherlands, in the early 18th century. I was involved in the North American Colonial War that began in the War of the Spanish Succession. At that time, the average age of civilians was about 35 years old. The issue of pensions hardly needs to be considered. First of all, pensioners must live to that age. If they don't live to that age, they worry about raising old age. What?

The huge military expenditures put the economy in chaos, and the solution to both the outflow of silver coins and the flooding of counterfeit coins is to re-mint coins. The Royal Mint has a heavy responsibility. Although Newton had no administrative experience before, he has been recognized. He is "the smartest man in Britain".

  As soon as Newton arrived at the Mint, he first found out various previous rules and regulations. He appeared in the workshop before the start of work at 4 a.m. every morning, and he had to come to supervise the work before the night shift started. He observed and calculated the time required for each process, rationally arranged the process, and greatly improved work efficiency. Originally, people thought that it was unimaginable to produce 15,000 pounds a week, but Newton quickly increased the production to 50,000 pounds a week, and even reached 100,000 pounds a week. He commanded more than 500 workers and 50 horses, and completed the nationwide recasting of the new currency within three years, totaling more than 6.84 million pounds. The economic situation in the UK has been improved as a result.

  However, when Newton was appointed, no one reminded him that the Superintendent of the Mint had also held another strange post since ancient times—the sheriff of the king's law in London and its surrounding areas.

At first, Newton was very disgusted with this concurrent post, and repeatedly asked to be dismissed from this post. He was the "Professor" of Lucas, and he was very reluctant to manage the Royal Mint, which was full of abuses. Now he still wants to make fakes. Dealing with economic criminals who smuggled gold and silver, unfortunately, the Ministry of Finance came with a clear instruction: Newton must perform this duty.

  You can learn without administrative experience, and you can certainly learn without criminal investigation experience. Newton quickly turned himself into a competent economic investigation team leader. Such as spying on intelligence, bribing informants, planting undercover agents, and even torture to extract confessions, Newton learned all the dirty work, and he quickly got used to interrogating criminals in the office of the Mint.

  Who can imagine what Isaac Newton’s torture is like? Just as Holmes has an "ultimate enemy" Professor Moriarty, Isaac's enemy is named William Charona. Although he has no formal education, he has a certain culture, skills, and even a certain economy. Learn insights. From 1691 onwards, he produced counterfeit coins on a large scale. He was skilled, traded cautiously, and made great profits. He soon led a wealthy life and moved into a mansion. Newton said that he "played a gentleman style" and looked like an upper-class figure. Up.

  It took a lot of time to catch him Isaac. In the final stage, Charona repeatedly begged Newton for mercy, but Newton responded with a heart of stone and refused to give him any answer. On March 22, 1699, Charona got on the gallows first, and then was chopped into four pieces with a big knife while he was still breathing. Newton did not attend this **** ceremony.

  A country needs military expenses to start a war. For example, buying guns and ammunition, manufacturing warships, steel and wood also need a lot of money, and Britain owes huge debts.

The current way to deal with the deficit is to print banknotes. However, in the 18th century, gold and silver must be used, and the fineness is reduced at most. It cannot be as unscrupulous as banknotes and cannot print money without money. The only way is to borrow money, the interest rate of the first treasury bond. It was 9%. At that time, the British government borrowed money everywhere to fight the war, regardless of whether they could afford it or not. It was borrowed to death. At that time, the British family lived only a few tens of pounds a year, and the rural expenses were lower. When the war was over, one Calculating the general ledger, the British government owed more than 50 million pounds in debt, and the interest alone was close to 5 million. The fiscal revenue at the time could not be repaid at all. So the lawmakers came up with a way to find other wealthy people to borrow money to repay these national debts. At the same time, the original interest rate is reduced to 6%, so that the interest rate can be reduced.

  At that time, there was a lack of investment opportunities in the UK, and many wealthy people did not know how to spend money, so the Chancellor of the Exchequer called on them to hold a meeting.

Of course no one was willing to lower interest rates and let people borrow money to repay their debts, but the British government promised them one advantage at the time, that is, they can monopolize South American trade. If others are engaged in South American trade, once they are reported, half of the cargo on the ship will be reported. The whistleblower and the royal family, and half of these debtors, so the parliament agreed to these people to form a company, the South China Sea Company. The creditors of these South Sea companies borrowed 10 million pounds and replaced the old creditors with 9% interest and became the new creditors. The shareholders of Nanhai Company thought that monopolizing the South American trade could make money and could make up for the loss of 3% interest, so they were happy to agree, but the reality is not the case.

There are many Spanish colonies in South America. Spain stipulates that the South China Sea Company can only go to four ports, and only one ship of cargo can be transported at a time. Spain has a strong navy in South America, and the Royal Navy cannot fight for more benefits for the South Sea Company. , So the Nanhai Company was established in 1711, and the first sale was made in 1717. This sale was for black slaves, because too many people were stuffed in the cabin, an epidemic broke out, many slaves died, and the Nanhai Company suffered a huge loss. .

  Nanhai Company was unwilling to bear this loss, so it tried to recover the loss in other ways. Throughout the ages, there has been a group of people waiting to be slaughtered like lambs, and this group of people is the "common people".

The South China Sea Company asked the British government to agree to sell the shares to the people of the whole country. The civilians used cash to buy the shares of the South Sea Company. The South Sea Company used the cash to buy the British government’s government bonds. The interest rate was reduced to 5%. This looks very good. Everyone has to. Well, the South China Sea Company has money to make money, and the British government can reduce the interest rate on the national debt. The only unlucky people are civilians like leeks.

The Nanhai Company bought 31 million treasury bonds and asked the government to agree to use the government bonds to buy stocks, which is equivalent to replacing the 9% interest rate bonds bought by civilians into Nanhai Company stocks. The government and Nanhai Company's government bonds have an interest rate of 5%. In this way, the government can pay 4% less interest rate, the national debt is reduced again, and the government once again agreed to Nanhai’s request.

Stocks have to be bought by someone to make a profit. The way to convince the common people to buy stocks voluntarily is to increase the price of the stocks. If 1 million national bonds, 9% of the national debt matures, it will be 1.09 million, but if the stocks skyrocket, 1 million will be It becomes 2 million. Everyone is willing to buy stocks with national debt. So the British Parliamentary Minister and the South China Sea Company have a holiday news. The South Sea Company and Spain have reached an agreement. A year can take dozens of ships and hundreds of cargoes and open all ports. , Nanhai Company will make a profit in the future.

  Fake news has attracted many people to buy stocks, and the stocks have doubled within a few months.

At that time, the Minister of Finance and the upper and lower parliament accepted a lot of bribes from the Nanhai Company to help the Nanhai Company promote the Spanish contract. The common people went crazy after hearing the news. The stock rose from 128 pounds per share to 330 in March 1720. The pound rose to 400 pounds in April and 600 pounds in May. People who could not buy stocks beat their chests. Some even sold their wives and children to buy stocks and sold their own land.

Merchants don’t engage in business, lawyers don’t fight lawsuits, shoemakers don’t make shoes, Newton also bought some stocks, and the streets and alleys are discussing Nanhai and Nanhai. People are like a collective obsession. Those who rob money don’t grab money, but Nanhai. The company’s stock subscription certificate. Every time when the door of the Exchange's Erleigh Street was opened, there was a crowd of people, and no one knew if they were trampled to death because everyone was rushing forward.

People can’t listen to anything at this time. The stocks are rising like this. Members don’t need cash for bribery. They switch to stocks. Some people see that Nanhai Company makes money so much, so they also form a "company". Some say, "I have lead." "The technology of turning blocks into gold" is bought by stockholders; some people say, "I have the technology of perpetual motion machine, and I will not need to pull a cart in the future." Some stockholders buy it; some people say, "I have a profitable project. I can't tell you what it is for the time being. But the stock will surely rise," and some people still buy it.

The company that did not announce the project had a 100-pound share, a down payment of 2 pounds, sold 1,000 shares, and cashed out 2,000 pounds and ran away. This is equivalent to 20 years of income for ordinary people, leaving behind the bewildered stockholders, hundreds of such" "The company" created a dense bubble, and they ran away after they rolled up the money.

  In order to prevent the lies from being exposed in advance, the South China Sea Company asked the British government to come forward and promulgate a law. Without the consent of the Parliament and the royal family, no company can issue shares.

  The police acted immediately and wiped out the large and small "companies". The stocks of these "companies" became worthless, and a large number of "companies" fled.

  Shareholders only came to their senses at this time and began to doubt the South China Sea Company where George I was the chairman. Many people began to sell their shares. The shares of the South Sea Company fell from 1,000 pounds to 900.

  Although the decline was not large, the shareholders of Nanhai Company have already noticed that they and government officials have dumped the stock, and the stock price has plummeted from 900 to 540 pounds per share.

  Nanhai Company also promised to small and medium shareholders that there will be dividends in the second half of the year, so that everyone can hold their shares and wait and see. Soon the South American ship will return, and everyone can make back their losses.

  In fact, Spain has no agreement with Nanhai Company at all. Nanhai Company does not make any money at all, and its stock price is still plummeting, 500, 400, 300...

  The person who mortgaged the land before has no land. Those who borrowed money are forced to commit suicide by debts. Robbery is everywhere. Random hacks and killings often occur to vent their anger, and public security has deteriorated seriously.

  A large number of stockholders want to sell their stocks. At this time, Nanhai Company will not allow them to sell.

Newton, who had made a small profit of 7,000 pounds, had a huge loss of 20,000 pounds because it was not sold in time. With his annual salary of 1,500 pounds as the director of the Royal Mint, plus the annual salary of Professor Lucas of Cambridge University of 500 pounds, he would have to pay back 10 years. It will take 200 years to pay off debts and ordinary civilians to pay it back.

In the anger of the whole country, the British government started an investigation. The South China Sea Company made a mess of its own accounts, and some accounts were directly burned. The investigation found that 578 members of Parliament had accepted bribes and 9 ministers bought 650,000 shares. Shareholders of was arrested and copied the Chancellor’s home. The money recovered was an average of one cent, which was only 33 pounds per person.

  Because the nature of the stock market crash was too bad, the UK did not issue any stocks in the 100 years before 1825, and the South China Sea Company did not go bankrupt until 1853. It took more than 100 years for the UK to return to the level of 1720.

  At that time, the East India Company rose. At the beginning, they were only doing business like selling slaves in Africa. But later discovered that in the far east, it is the place where the real money is made.

  The East India Company was founded by the Dutch. At the beginning, the shares of the East India Company could only be held and not transferred. In the stock exchange, people who missed the purchase of original stocks can buy other people's second-hand stocks. Therefore, if investors want to recoup their investment, they can only sell the shares to others and get the money back through the transfer of stocks. They cannot directly withdraw shares from the company. Of course, they cannot cut leeks like the Nanhai Company.

Before the first Opium War, the British were skeptical about the shares of the East India Company. After all, the example of the South China Sea Company was there. Later, as the first batch of war reparations arrived at the Royal Mint, people saw the real silver dollars from the factory. After coming out, people realized that the East India Company's stock could really make money.

  The "Nanjing Treaty" stipulates that the compensation shall be paid in foreign yuan, with a total of 21 million silver dollars. In terms of the specific time limit and amount of compensation, Article 7 of the treaty stipulates that the first amount to be paid immediately after the signing takes effect (August 29, 1842) is 6 million silver dollars, and the rest shall be paid six times in three years: June 30, 1843 On or before, and on or before December 31, a payment of 3 million yuan was required; on or before June 30, 1844, and on or before December 31, a payment of 2.5 million yuan was required on or before June 30, 1845 and in December Before the 31st, 2 million yuan must be paid.

  In case of arrears, an additional 5% annual interest shall be paid. Among them, the 6 million silver dollars paid immediately for the first time was a condition proposed by the British army to withdraw from the Yangtze River and lift the blockade.

The Sino-British trade was interrupted before the outbreak of the war in 1839. If the Manchurian navy could defeat the British like the Spanish navy, then the shares of the East India Company would still be worthless, and the prosperity of the British Victorian era would never be worth it. Existence, and maybe even a sluggish 100 years, there will be no so-called "British Empire".

Due to factors such as the level of refining and the background of silver use, the silver mixed with gold could not be valued, so that the actual value of the final indemnity exceeded the total indemnity stipulated in the treaty, and the British made a considerable extra profit. All the profits were consumed by the Great Irish Famine in 1845, and Britain lost dozens of tons of gold.

  The Manchus were so bullied, they robbed the Chinese when they had no money. The Second Opium War was not settled in silver dollars.

  Europeans are not very good at mathematics, and most people are not as good as Easterners in mental arithmetic, but a small number of elites are better than Chinese in mathematics. It is this group of people who led the progress of the times.

  The British did not win much money in the Opium War. What the British took away was the confidence of China’s "heavenly kingdom" that has been passed down for thousands of years.

This time, "Calling the Night" snatched the gold from the Royal Mint. Since the Second World War, more than 60 countries and regions in the world have stored part of their gold reserves in the United States. To be precise, they are stored in New York, the United States. In the "underground vaults" of the Federal Reserve Bank.

  The Muggle Prime Minister is going crazy. Americans are now falling into the shadow of the subprime mortgage crisis and are overwhelmed by themselves. In the United States, loans are a very common phenomenon. Locals rarely buy a house in full, usually with long-term loans. But unemployment and re-employment are very common here. These people whose income is not stable or even have no income at all, buy a house because the credit rating is not up to the standard, they are defined as sub-prime loans. Sub-prime mortgages are a high-risk and high-yield industry. In the previous 5 years Due to the continued prosperity of the U.S. housing market and the low level of U.S. interest rates in the past few years, the U.S. subprime mortgage market has developed rapidly, but now the U.S. housing market has begun to shrink, and the cooling of the housing market has also made it difficult to purchase and refinance mortgages. , The bank took back the house and could not sell the high price and caused a large loss...

  The British are not as good as the French. When the South China Sea Company collapsed, there was no bourgeoisie leading the revolution. Under the scattered sand, the losses could only be borne by themselves, and the small shareholders could only commit suicide.

During that time, the Minister of Magic was Damocles Rohr. He proposed to be stricter on Muggles. At that time, people had already proposed to build a wizard prison on the Hebrides, but Rohr abolished the plan. , Insist on using Azkaban.

  He and Malfoy embezzled the money from the ministry and made a fortune with Muggle councillors. What does Muggle suicide and the wizard being locked in Azkaban’s madness have anything to do with them?

This time Azkaban escaped from the prison, Kingsley also proposed a plan to build a new prison. Although the space in the prison can be expanded with magic, the Auror is understaffed, and the prisoners cried as soon as they heard that they were sent to Azkaban. The sky wipes tears, in fact, there are no dementors guarding Azkaban now.

  It would be nice if the Chinese were as "cute" as pandas.

However, although the Chinese fireball is small but very agile, it is the most dangerous fire dragon. It is more difficult to deal with than the Hungarian hornet, but more terrifying than it is the financial predators. They are lurking under the water with only one pair of eyes, and they seem to be peaceful. The matter, in fact, has hidden murderous intentions.

  They are here. I hope that the British who like oriental culture will not be like Ye Gonghaolong's Ye Gong. Seeing the real dragon appeared, he was scared to death.

  (End of this chapter)