Chapter 481 National Bank Closure
The reason why it was announced later was mainly because some specific details had not been negotiated. For Sheffield, it was about the construction of the dreadnought-class battleships at the San Francisco Shipyard. His original Houston Shipyard was just the bottom of a naval supply chain. The San Francisco Shipyard had slightly stronger capabilities, but was only in the middle.
There are only two ways to seize the navy's orders with the current technical experience. The first is to take advantage of this crisis to acquire some shipyards to make the shipbuilding industry stronger.
However, this method is not enough to quench immediate thirst. While Sheffield is making acquisitions, it also needs the federal government to take care of the losses suffered by San Francisco due to the earthquake and to give some preference to the West Coast in terms of national defense.
For Roosevelt, this request was too much, because he felt that the San Francisco Shipyard was still slightly insufficient in terms of its ability to build the Dreadnought-class shipyard, and he did not want to give in easily.
"Everyone uses the same material, steel, and the craftsmanship is similar. Why can't you give me two orders?" Sheffield said very dissatisfiedly. "The development of national defense requires continuous financial support. I now suspect that the President is biased against the citizens of the West Coast."
Why can't it be done? Why can't it be done? Sheffield thinks that the president is engaging in regional discrimination. Although Sheffield is the biggest regional discriminator, there is no contradiction. Slave owners have regional discrimination, so why can't the president have it?
The concept of the new battleship is that under the condition of improving accuracy, more large-caliber guns can be fired in salvo to effectively hit targets in long-distance naval battles. The characteristics of the dreadnought can be summarized as the cancellation of the secondary main guns used for attack on previous battleships, the installation of main guns of the same caliber and model, and only the small-caliber secondary guns used to defend light warships are retained, and high-power steam turbines are used as power.
What's so difficult about this? The worst that can happen is that they can just copy the British. Can the British come and collect intellectual property fees? The so-called lack of experience of the San Francisco shipyard is nonsense. Whether it is lacking or not will be known after it is built. It is not unusable.
"That's a weapon used by naval soldiers. What do you mean it can't be used?" Roosevelt gritted his teeth and said, "Why should I believe you have the ability to do it?"
"Other shipyards can produce defective products, but my shipyard can't?" Sheffield said in a tough manner, "If you don't give me orders, I won't rescue the market. I will continue to lay off employees and spread panic."
"Mr. President, only when we have money can we better help others. This is the trickle-down effect." Morgan Jr. came out to smooth things over at this time. "William's idea is not wrong. Besides, it is also for the development of the United States Navy."
Morgan Jr. came out to lend his support mainly because Sheffield had made concessions in the railway system and had allocated a portion of its capital injection shares in the equity of the Tennessee Steel and Coal Company. In this way, the future structure of the steel industry would be that the three largest steel companies in the country would each own one and a half shares.
Furthermore, the order for a battleship was only three or four million US dollars, and the total was only seven or eight million US dollars, which was not a lot of money. If Roosevelt caused trouble for the three of them because of this, it would be a bit too stingy.
And look at Sheffield, he was well prepared, the parameters he produced seem to be correct, the standard displacement is 20,400 tons, the full load displacement is 2,200 tons, the entire warship is 168 meters long, 27 meters wide, and has a draft of 8.5 meters. The power part is equipped with a triple-expansion steam boiler. The maximum output of the new steam engine can reach 23,000 horsepower, which allows the Dragon-class dreadnought battleship to reach a maximum speed of 21 knots.
The battleship's waterline armor is 240mm to 330mm, the deck armor is 35mm to 80mm, the main gun turret armor is 360mm, the compartment bulkhead armor is 180mm to 260mm, and the command tower armor is 360mm. It is equipped with four twin 45-caliber 305mm main guns and three torpedo tubes.
As long as the ship is unsinkable, wouldn't that be the goal? When did the great naval officers and soldiers of the United States become so hypocritical that they could not overcome difficulties?
"This requires approval from professionals in the Navy Department." As a president, Roosevelt had all the basic tactics of a politician and had to follow procedures or resort to procrastination.
"The rubber stamps of the Navy Department don't count. Only ignorant people take them seriously." Sheffield chuckled. "From this point of view, Mr. President, you have already exceeded your authority and sidelined the Navy Department. You don't follow the rules yourself, and you want to push the Navy Department out to take the blame? The Navy Department is really unlucky to have a president like you."
When he was the Undersecretary of the Navy, he left the Secretary of the Navy with nothing to do every day. Now that Roosevelt is the president, he actually asked Sheffield to go to the Navy Department. This is simply an insult to the IQ of a slave owner. This is intolerable.
The order for the two battleships has a negligible impact on the current situation in terms of money. The reason why Roosevelt was unwilling to do so was because it concerned his dream of building a large navy. Now this dream might be tarnished by the evil big companies, so President Roosevelt couldn't stand it for a while.
But everything was fine once he figured it out. In the end, Sheffield successfully achieved his goal and happily got the navy order. Once the order was obtained, it could only mean one thing: even a historically famous president like Roosevelt knew the importance of special treatment for special matters and was not pedantic at all.
The two Sheffield men had one final discussion, mainly to see if they could still dig out surplus value from the federal government. Roosevelt ended the discussion in resentment, as they really couldn't find any.
On the twentieth day after the outbreak of the financial crisis, the White House officially announced that all banks in the country would be closed for fifteen days to allow citizens in panic to calm down. At the same time, the rescue plan had been communicated and the federal government would invest 30 million U.S. dollars to jointly launch a rescue operation with socially responsible entrepreneurs.
Sheffield and his two companions left Washington and rushed to New York to save the stock market, which had been cut in half. This should not be a problem. The stock market cut in half looked serious, but it was not a terrible thing, at least in Sheffield's eyes. Was the cut in half so scary? Where did they put the Great Depression twenty years later?
During the Great Depression, the New York Stock Exchange fell for three consecutive years, evaporating 90% of the market value. Three years ago, a stock worth 20,000 was worth less than 2,000 three years later. These were blue chip stocks. The dark cloud hanging over the heads of the citizens of the United States during the three years caused the United States to experience its first population outflow since its founding, and the destination of the outflow was the Soviet Union.
Compared with the Great Depression 20 years later, the current problem is actually not very serious. After the three men arrived in New York, they stood side by side in front of the door of the Morgan Building facing the reporters who swarmed in, leaving behind a photo that can be called a classic. Of course, they still had to say some reassuring words. As the host, young Morgan described the cause of the financial crisis in a neutral tone. It was indeed caused by some unruly bankers. It is no longer meaningful to argue about who is more responsible, the federal government or the bankers.
This is like hitting everyone with a slap on the wrist, because everyone is wrong. The front line is that since everyone is wrong, then no one is wrong. "Before the current crisis broke out, the stock market bubble was already quite serious. But at the time, I judged that although the decline of the stock market was inevitable, it was still abnormal to have such an avalanche. If someone hadn't deliberately created the crisis, it wouldn't have come to this. It was mainly because the financial threshold was too low and the chaos of small and medium-sized banks that led to this financial crisis. Financial institutions in the future will inevitably be subject to stricter supervision."
"There are many junk bonds in the securities market. Some financial institutions outside the supervision are to blame. The three of us have begun to identify the bonds among them and let the truly viable bonds appear in front of everyone." Rockefeller Jr. stopped talking and said, "That's it for now."
"I don't know anything about the financial industry. I just came here to help!" Sheffield certainly didn't give in to the nice words. He had to act more honestly next to the two actors. "Union Bank is my bank. As everyone knows, it can't do anything except deposit and withdrawal. It's a bit difficult for me to explain the causes of this financial crisis, but I am very willing to do something useful after receiving the invitation."
The slave owner instantly forgot who proposed the shock therapy, and no reporter asked this question. This is a country ruled by law, and one must be responsible for what he says. The slave owner knows which newspaper you are a reporter from.
After the three of them expressed their opinions, thunderous applause suddenly broke out. All the reporters and representatives of financial institutions applauded with great enthusiasm, and then entered the Morgan Building under everyone's gaze. Those who wanted to follow in were stopped outside by the bodyguards and were not allowed to enter.
On October 31, President Roosevelt formally obtained approval from Congress and issued an order in the name of the federal government, closing all banks in the country for 15 days. They were not allowed to open during this period, and violators would be severely punished by law.
The three men in the Morgan Building appealed through various media, and bank owners across the country brought all their bank's bonds and stocks to the Morgan Building for evaluation.
"We have expressed our greatest goodwill. If these small and medium-sized banks are smart, they will quickly bring over some of their most valuable wealth and let us see what is worth buying." Morgan Jr. poured a glass of wine for each of the two guests. Both Morgan and his son were people who enjoyed life very much, and this was also an expression of goodwill.
(End of this chapter)
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