Chapter 556 Underground

  The Old Testament Exodus once said: "There are poor people among my people who live with you. If you lend money to him, you should not profit from him like a money lender."

  It is also recorded in the book of Leviticus: "You lend him money, but don’t take profit from him; if you lend money to him, don’t ask him more."

  In fact, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out largely because of human greed.

  The 1% interest loan issued by the Federal Reserve stimulates economic development. Normal credit will not cause a crisis. The Federal Reserve cuts interest rates to reduce the cost of repayment and improve the repayment ability.

  But people’s greedy nature makes people who don’t have the ability to repay to borrow loans, so even if you want to lend money to others, you can’t set the interest too low, let alone no interest.

  Interest will give people a sense of urgency, so that the borrower will not speak loudly and let a friend or relative borrow an astronomical amount.

  Only in this way, in the eyes of the debtor, the creditor appears stingy and stingy. How can friends and relatives borrow money to repay the interest? So the best way is not to publish your financial information, and don't show off your wealth, so that others will not ask you to borrow money if they don't know that you have money.

Slytherin is evil and high-profile, Gryffindor is brave and reckless, Ravenclaw is smart and self-conscious, and Hefpaff is a lot of rich fools, but everyone is very low-key, easily invisible, high-profile It was the Smith family, who claimed to be the descendants of Helga Hef Puff.

In many knowledge classes, teachers will not say that they will talk at parties or at the table. Hefpaff likes to spread the gossip and is also very good at keeping secrets. Even some bad freshmen in the Muggle world will get to Hefpaff. Fupaf's life will also improve.

Many people, whether they are wizards or Muggles, live in a world of "bucketing": one day's work gets one day's wages, one month's work gets one month's salary, no matter if you have an annual income of less than 10,000 Yuan dishwashing worker or white-collar worker with an annual salary of over one million, you spend a portion of your time in exchange for a portion of money. If you are fired or unable to continue working due to illness or injury, your income will stop immediately. If you don't carry the bucket, there will be no income.

  With Arthur’s income, he could not pay for the high medical expenses after being bitten by Nagini. It was Lucius Malfoy’s donation that saved his life.

  How ironic, but the reality is like this. There are only two economic classes in the world: the rich class and the poor class. The so-called middle class still lives on wages, and lives on "buckets" every day.

  If you are fired and there are still loans that have not been repaid, what should you do?

  If a medical treatment runs out of your savings, what will you do?

  How about the child’s school expenses?

  What about the alimony for the wife's divorce?

  The "bucket" is not guaranteed, and only the "pipe" is the stable lifeline.

  There are two young people. They both rely on carrying water to sell to the people in the town to make ends meet. They are called John and Bob. These two young people are very young, they have worked hard and earned income. They are also very happy. So they kept lifting water from the river to the village, day after day, year after year.

  One day, Bob felt that this was not a long-term solution. What if one day he gets old? So he stopped "carrying the bucket" and turned to repair the pipe. In order to repair the pipe, he carried a lot less buckets than John.

  People in the village laughed at him. John earns more than Bob every day. He is a very optimistic and cheerful person. He often invites people in the village to drink. Everyone likes John, but Bob still carries out his plan.

  While John slept in a hammock at night and on weekends, Bob continued to dig his pipes. In the first few months, Bob's efforts have not made much progress. His work is very hard—it’s harder than John’s because Bob is still working at night and on weekends.

  "Short-term pain brings long-term rewards," he always reminded himself when the exhausted Bob stumbled back to his humble cabin after finishing his daily work. He measures the effectiveness of his work by setting daily goals. He persisted in this way, because he knew that one day, the rewards would greatly exceed the efforts made at this time.

  Day by day, month by month passed. One day, Bob realized that his pipeline was half completed, which also meant that he only had to carry the bucket half the distance. Bob also used the extra time to build the pipeline. The date of final completion is getting closer. While he was resting, Bob saw that his old friend John was still struggling to carry water. John's piggyback is even stronger. And due to long-term fatigue, the pace has begun to slow down. John looked very angry and glum, as if resenting himself because he was destined to carry water for a lifetime. He spent less time in the hammock, but spent more time in the bar. When he came in, the old patrons of the bar were all whispering, and the drunks in town imitated John's hunched posture and the way he walked with his feet, they all giggled. John stopped buying wine for everyone to drink, and stopped telling jokes. He would rather sit alone in a dark corner, surrounded by a lot of empty wine bottles.

  Finally, Bob’s momentous moment has finally arrived, and the pipeline is complete! The villagers flocked to watch the water flow from the pipe to the sink! Now there is a steady stream of fresh water in the village. People from other nearby villages also moved to this village one after another, so this village developed and prospered. Once the pipe was completed, Bob no longer had to carry the bucket. Whether he works or not, the water keeps flowing in continuously. When he was eating, water was flowing in. When he was sleeping, water was flowing in. When he went to play on the weekend, the water was still flowing in. The more water flows into the village, the more money flows into Bob's pocket.

  Most people like the feeling of spending money, enjoying the benefits of water flowing out of the pipeline in advance, but they are unwilling to endure the hardship of repairing the pipeline, let alone repairing the pipeline for 20 years.

  Bob doesn’t want to enjoy food in top restaurants?

  Don’t want to talk and laugh loudly with people while drinking?

  Some patience is necessary. When you are young, you can enjoy it in advance. When you are old, you will not have that energy.

The plumber who is doing the "American Dream" and repairing water pipes for Wall Street elites is a bucket man. He pours the bucket into the pool. The water in the pool circulates along the "pipe" and this water may flow into it. The fountain may also flow into the swimming pool, but once the plumber stops carrying the bucket, the fountain has no water to spray. It needs water to continue to spray, so the person in the swimming pool asks for water. If the person in the swimming pool refuses to provide it, the fountain It was completely cut off.

  Those who admired the fountain and admired its exquisite design have left one after another. Only then did the plumber clearly see that the mermaid stone sculpture hidden under the fountain did not look as hazy and dreamy when viewed through the water, and even poorly carved, not as good as the one displayed in the old European museum.

  Many countries are accustomed to using a single country as the unit of analysis when analyzing historical issues, including the United States. For special reasons, many historical issues are related to the United Kingdom and the United States.

  The victory of the War of Independence in 1776 and the Second War of Independence in 1812 increased Americans’ confidence in themselves. They defeated a formidable opponent. Domestic newspapers desperately propagated it. People believed that the immediate prosperity was due to the president’s wise decisiveness.

  People in the Victorian era believed that the prosperity at that time was due to the creativity of people and the enterprising spirit of entrepreneurs, but the weather also played a big role.

From 1832 to 1835, there were four consecutive bumper wheat harvests in England. The price of wheat dropped by 40%. At that time, two-thirds of the working class’s income was used to buy grain. The lower wheat price gave them free money to buy clothes and other commodities. The increase in demand for products has also indirectly affected U.S. cotton production.

  The United States was in chaos in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In Nevada, Mark Twain was a reporter in Virginia City, which is also an area rich in gold and silver in Nevada. In the "gold rush", Mark Twain was not immune, and he was very sensitive to rumors and new opportunities. At that time, many miners who had discovered gold and silver mines were selling their stocks in New York City to raise funds, so Mark Twain invested all his savings, and even all the author's remuneration, into buying silver mine stocks. .

  Americans like speculation very much, and the risk of stock trading is the greatest. Some people become upstarts overnight, but they may also become paupers and even debts overnight. Although the risks are high, the trading floors of the securities markets in New York, London and other places are always crowded today. Just like entering a casino, it is common for winners to laugh and losers to cry.

  In addition to stock speculation, there is also a more lucrative way of speculation, that is, land speculation.

  Land speculators are mainly special merchant groups formed in the 18th century. They come from different social classes. Many of them are military officers, parliamentarians or officials, including famous revolutionary leaders such as Washington and Franklin. Of the 55 representatives attending the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 14 were land speculators.

  They combine political and economic power, and their influence is not trivial. After independence, land speculators are more closely integrated with official institutions. Many "land bureaus" set up by the government are controlled by land companies, so that "most of the work of the land bureaus has been handled by private land companies for many years." . This combination of government and business makes land speculation itself uncontrollable. When the Westward Movement was about to rise or was just emerging, a large amount of public land in the west was preempted by land speculators. Take a place in Mississippi as an example. 1.4 million acres of land were purchased by a 62-person speculative group, the other 1.3 million acres were owned by a 57-person speculative group, and 2.6 million acres were divided by other speculative groups. From the beginning of President Washington until the time before the American Civil War, dignitaries in American politicians and those who had nothing to do with the western land speculation market were almost rare. President George Washington himself has a close relationship with the Ohio Partnership. He bought 32,373 acres of land in the Ohio area at one time and appointed Rufus Putman, the representative of the Ohio company, as the first federal chief of land exploration. Other founding fathers, such as Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Robert Morris, George Morgan, etc., have joined the ranks of big land speculators. A passage from Washington shows the mentality of these people at the time: "Anyone who ignores the current opportunity to chase high-quality land will lose it."

  The dignitaries of Washington and Wall Street used each other, and the integration of government and business made the government's land policy more conducive to land speculation.

  Only 68,000 acres of public land were sold in the United States in 1800. By 1818, it had increased to 3.491 million acres, a sudden increase of more than 50 times. When the financial crisis broke out in 1819, the first land speculation climax ended.

Beginning in 1830, due to the Westward Movement and Monroe Doctrine, a large number of European immigrants came to the west, and the second land speculation began. The enthusiasm for infrastructure construction and the laissez-faire behavior of speculation, land prices skyrocketed at the same time as the transaction volume increased. It is too late to mint, and paper money is needed to meet market demand.

Printing can not only print books, but also banknotes, but President Jackson is not a person who likes banknotes. The front of a one-dollar banknote is printed with the father of the United States, George Washington, and the reverse is printed with the US national emblem. The material of the banknotes is 75%. It is a blend of cotton and 25% flax.

  It is difficult for every American patriot and politician to admit that his trade and economy are still dependent on the defeated rival Britain.

  The Reserve Bank of the United Kingdom has a rule that when the grain is harvested, gold does not need to buy grain imports and it is relatively easy to borrow money. When the grain harvest fails and it has to import grain, the Bank of England will be full of protection for gold and loans will be very difficult. American land speculators are not only Americans, but also British. In 1833, the United States had only 110 million debts to the United Kingdom. By 1833, it was 220 million. The capital flowing into the United States from the United Kingdom has exceeded the total cash in the federal government's state banks. the amount.

  This kind of problem cannot be solved by printing money. The gold reserves have not changed. This problem was not solved until the gold mine was discovered in California in 1848 and the gold rush began.

  Compared with the Second Bank of the United States of America, which likes to reject people and maintain its own stability by refusing to accept bills from banks that it believes is poorly operated, people prefer state banks with loose credit and less stringent requirements.

  Many state banks are hurried to legislate, and many state banks have many hidden dangers in their operations. Jackson was elected as the president of the United States. He believed that the credit problems of the Bank of the Second United States of America affected the development of the U.S. economy.

  Jackson decided to close the Bank of the Second United States. As part of the strategy to destroy the Bank of the United States, Jackson withdrew government deposits from the bank and placed them in state banks instead.

  At the same time, the United States promulgated and implemented the Free Banking Act. The Free Banking Act allows anyone with a minimum capital of US$100,000 to establish a bank without any other requirements; and the application procedures in each state have also been greatly simplified. Banks have sprung up like mushrooms, and the hasty establishment of banks has led to rampant fraud and low-quality banking services.

  Because of the increased deposit base, state banks that do not pay attention to credit policy can issue more bank bonds and issue more loans with real estate as a guarantee, and real estate is the most illiquid of all investments. In 1836, the British grain production was reduced. The weather that year was wet and cold, which was not suitable for wheat growth. However, because of the bumper harvest in the previous few years, it was not enough to buy grain imports. The trouble is that the Parliament is at this moment. There is no eternal enemy, only eternal benefit" Palmerston’s world.

   Palmerston managed to draw certain influential figures from The Times to the cabinet to assume secondary positions, and accepted others into his social circle for comfort. From this time on, the activities of The Times on the foreign policy of the British Empire were entirely aimed at creating public opinion that conformed to Lord Palmerston’s foreign policy. The Times must prepare public opinion for what Lord Palmerston wants to do, and force public opinion to agree with what he has done.

  When discussing American issues, the newspaper did its best to make the British and Americans oppose each other. But it did so neither because it sympathized with the British cotton textile giants, nor because it cared about any actual or possible interests in the UK.

  He loves warships, especially warships that can hit the east. Stamp duty is a tax on newspapers implemented by the United Kingdom in 1712. The purpose is to increase national income and fight against opposition newspapers. The stamp duty caused the cost of newspapers to skyrocket and restricted the spread of newspapers, making it impossible for the masses to read newspapers. In 1836, Parliament lowered the stamp duty, so reading newspapers became cheaper.

  In 1839, the British Parliament published a blue paper containing diplomatic documents on the relationship between Britain and Persia and Britain and Afghanistan, including a letter from the British representative in Kabul, A. Baines, on the British-Afghan war. These letters were selected and forged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with ulterior motives in order to cover up the provocative role played by Britain in launching the war.

  In 1836, China began to discuss the issue of smoking ban.

   was also established in that year. The Association of India and China gathered 109 large companies related to the aggression of India and China, including giants from all walks of life such as import and export trade, shipping, and finance. The association often keeps in touch with various departments of the British government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and provides written or oral information to urge the British government to step up its aggression against China.

  British funds stopped lending easing policy, Jackson's approach to land speculation was to block speculation. He signed the "Minting Circulation Order" as an administrative order, requiring that, except in very rare cases, all future purchases of land must be paid for with gold or silver coins.

The capital chain was broken, and a large number of land speculators found that they could not bear the land holdings at all. The bubble burst in the late fall of 1836 and public land speculation was completely stagnant. The land in Illinois used to be US$10 per mu, and then fell to US$3. The United States Financial institutions have become shaky.

  The interests of many British investors have been damaged. At this time, only the United Kingdom is saving the United States, and it continues to use easing policies.

Many newspapers condemned the protection measures taken by the Bank of England, but the Times did not say anything. They were the "slaves" of Your Excellency Cupid, and they gave good reasons. Since 1836, the British grain harvest has been poor. In 1839, the price of wheat was 80% higher. As the civilians can hardly afford to buy any clothes, many British textile mills have to reduce their production, which has also led to a decrease in the demand for cotton, from 15 cents per pound to 10 cents.

  When it is profitable, the United Kingdom and the United States live together, and when it is unprofitable, they go their own way, just like a couple who turned their faces, listening to each other’s name and face will become older.

  In addition to falling land prices, the United States still has a large amount of unsold cotton. The currency reserves of the Bank of England dropped from 9 million pounds to 3 million, but they still did not move their gold reserves and instead borrowed from French banks.

  When the war machine is fully operational, all people's livelihood issues can be ignored. It just so happened that the news of the smoke sale in Humen came, and the first Opium War started.

The sense of national honor can affect people’s understanding of complex issues. The great sun never set empire defeated the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the silver that was shipped solved the financial pressure of the United Kingdom. As for the United States, industry and agriculture stagnated. Banks stopped cash payments. The government began to fall behind.

  How can the government fall behind? Of course, the government could fall back on it, and land speculation did not end until Lincoln signed the Homestead Law in the Civil War.

  Before that, because of the gold rush, the westward movement started again, and land speculation began again.

Generally speaking, capitalists repaired the railway after the factory was built. The United States did the opposite. Everyone knows that the land where the railway passes by will definitely increase in value. The American railway is going to the gold mine. This time speculators snapped up. It is the land along the railway, but how is the route of the railway determined?

  One speed, at that time, it was the two companies who were competing to build the road faster.

2. Topography. Every upgrade of transportation means a large opening of agriculture. The formerly barren land will become valuable farmland. Because of the volume and perishable characteristics of agricultural products, only the land along the railway line will be used as agricultural land. Agriculture needs water, and the west is full of deserts, so canals need to be built for irrigation.

The American ranch grazing industry is distributed in the mountainous areas of the western United States. There are many plateaus and basins. Due to the closed terrain, the climate is arid; in the western part of the Central Plains, because it is located on the leeward **** of the westerly wind and is farther from the eastern ocean, the precipitation is relatively high. less. The arid climate makes agricultural production inseparable from irrigation; the grassland is rich in resources and is the main animal husbandry area in the United States.

U.S. commercial grain agriculture is distributed in the Central Plains of the United States. The plains are suitable for agricultural mechanization. In order to encourage agricultural developers in the west, the U.S. federal government has not only formulated flexible and diverse land development policies, but also successively issued the "Desert Land Act" and "Encouragement". "Western Tree Planting Law" and other laws. In the form of laws and policies, it is clarified that as long as trees, grass, or irrigation ditches in the western region reach a certain area and a certain period of time, a certain area of ​​land can be obtained for free or at a low price. The implementation of these laws and policies promoted land reclamation and agricultural development in the western United States, and some large farmers began to appear.

  They don’t need to "carry buckets" and can hire people to work. They have also experienced land reclamation, but they have repaired their own "pipes", and they don't need to bend over and work anymore when they are old.

  Hifpuff’s students have to take care of plants, cultivate the land, and get rid of carnivorous slugs, but this does not prevent them from learning other knowledge.

  If there are more leeks, it looks like the grassland. The farmer starts the machine to harvest and quickly pours a piece.

  The strange thing is that Leek likes to hold his head high and look up at the sky, while the farmer hunches down and looks down at the earth.

  Who is living more unkind?

In the Great Famine of Ireland in 1845, tariffs were lowered to import cheap food, and fiscal revenues were reduced. Railways were government projects. If revenues were less, less were paid to railway companies. Stocks fell, and the bubble burst again. Order is chaotic, and Britain’s financial crisis has also come.

  　　 These materials and data are taken from "The Great American Crisis in 1837". Available at Xinhua Bookstore. The United States was killed by the British and almost became the second Spain. Fortunately, a gold mine was discovered.

  　　

  　

  (End of this chapter)