Chapter 118: Big Bargain Hunting (First Update, Please Subscribe)
For Buffett, who was far away in the United States, he had no idea what was happening in South America.
After leaving South China, he boarded the Flying Cloud and headed straight for Atlanta. The so-called "blockade" by Washington was a joke. They entered the port smoothly. The hundreds of tons of gunpowder he brought were undoubtedly the most urgently needed materials for the Confederacy. After knocking on the door of Richmond with gunpowder, the "Free Trade Company" represented by Buffett received a large number of orders, ranging from military uniforms to canned food, from gunpowder to rifles.
Of course, the Confederation would not pay much of a deposit, they just provided a "purchase intention". After all, everyone knew that the premise of the deal was that they shipped the goods to the Confederation's port. Otherwise, everything was empty talk.
While contacting Confederate officials in Richmond, Buffett also successfully completed another task of his - he contacted the Southern Baptist Convention and got them to agree to send missionaries to South China. These missionaries were missionaries trained by the Southern Baptist Convention to preach in China. They not only spoke Chinese, but also could write Chinese characters.
Zhu Xianhai needed teachers and missionaries who were proficient in Chinese and English. He had no choice but to do this. In this era, apart from the church, who else could provide teachers who knew Chinese? There were even Chinese majors in the Southern Baptist College. Apart from them, who else could he turn to?
After leaving Atlanta, Buffett did not immediately follow the Flying Cloud back to South China, but continued north and went directly to New York.
As a businessman, he was not worried about being arrested in the North for smuggling. After all, even in New York, there were many people involved in smuggling to the South.
Selling out one's country for money is just the nature of businessmen.
After a short rest in New York and signing several machine purchase contracts, Buffett began to prepare for another big thing he was going to do.
"Cyrus Westfield, Atlantic Telegraph Company. I don't know why Steven chose this bankrupt company."
"Sir, the Atlantic Telegraph Company is not bankrupt yet!"
As the most famous stockbroker on Wall Street, Angfield certainly knew about the "notorious" company.
"A few years ago, when the Atlantic cable broke and sank into the Atlantic Ocean, its stock price plummeted. Now its market value is only worth..."
After taking out a piece of paper and doing some calculations, Angfi smiled.
"About $160,000. However, there are only $120,000 worth of shares currently circulating in the market, and there are $40,000 worth of shares in the name of Mr. Field. Sir..."
Once again, Angfi said in a very serious tone.
"Although it is a war time, there are still many projects worth investing in the United States. Atlantic Telegraph? Believe me, it is just a scam, a scam known to the whole world. Mr. Field has already been ruined. Why waste your money?"
In response to Angfield's reminder, Buffy shrugged and spoke directly.
"Fortunately, I am not short of money."
This trip to the South earned him nearly $1 million, enough to buy the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
However, he was full of doubts in his heart. Does this almost bankrupt company really have unlimited potential as Steven said?
Will this kind of bottom-fishing cause you to lose all your assets?
All-in is a kind of wisdom, but bottom-fishing is also a kind of wisdom. All-in can make people lose everything. Super-bottom can also make people jump off the building.
After so many years in the stock exchange, Buffett really doesn't dare to gamble anymore. At least now he doesn't dare to gamble as much as in the past, after all, he has learned his lesson.
But the problem is that his guardian angel wants to gamble, and this time he gambles a lot.
…
John Pierpont Morgan was very proud!
For him, this war that had been going on for half a year was a good opportunity to make money. A few months ago, when the war broke out, he learned that there was a batch of scrapped old rifles in the gun warehouse of the War Department in Washington, and he immediately bought them.
Morgan then approached General John Fremont and offered to sell him 5,000 rifles at $22 each. Fremont, who was short of weapons, bought the weapons out of desperation. In order to meet the other party's caliber requirements, Morgan did a very "financial" thing and ground the original .50 caliber rifles into .52 caliber, but this might cause the barrels to explode.
But what does this have to do with him?
He had earned $110,000. As for the fact that the rifles were extremely unreliable and often exploded, and the army sold them as scrap metal for $3.50 each, he had nothing to do with it.
Right now, the most important thing is to make as much money as possible from this war. After all, opportunities like this where gold is everywhere are indeed very rare.
"Morgan, have you heard?"
The Ketcham people shouted loudly before they came in.
"Some fool is buying up a lot of Atlantic Telegraph stock!"
"What!"
Hearing this, Morgan stood up in shock.
God knows, the Atlantic Cable Company was a disgrace to him. It was the biggest failure in his investment career. Or the only failure.
Fifty thousand dollars worth of stocks just disappeared like that, not even a trace was left.
"Is anyone really buying its stock? How is that possible?"
Morgan wondered.
"Yes, I heard that it was a wealthy local from Chile. He seemed to think it was a pity that the cable was broken and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, so he might want to reconnect the cable."
The Transatlantic Cable is actually a telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean. From the day it was laid, it was destined to attract the attention of the whole world. Of course, it would also attract the attention of the capital market and the fledgling Morgan. The only telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean in the world, no matter how you calculate it, there is profit to be made!
Morgan bought $50,000 worth of stock in 1857. A year later, the Atlantic cable was finally laid, and the success of the cable was hailed as the communication achievement of the century. New York City celebrated with a parade and fireworks, which accidentally caused the dome of City Hall to catch fire. Even so, people still cheered the achievement, and on August 16, the communication line was officially opened with the successful communication between the Queen and Buchanan.
At that time, the stock of Atlantic Telegraph Company skyrocketed, and Morgan's investment increased several times, but what happened next?
Fate is cruel. First, the signal of the telegraph line became increasingly blurred, and then North America could no longer receive clear signals from Europe. A few days later, the submarine cable broke...broken!
Overnight, the reputation of the former hero was ruined. This was not the most important thing. The important thing was that Morgan's investment was lost. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of stocks actually shrunk by hundreds of times! It was not just shrinking, but directly turned into waste paper.
Originally, this was the sad thing in his heart that he never wanted to mention, but who would have thought that someone was actually buying the shares of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
"Doesn't he know that even if the cable is salvaged, it will be meaningless?"
Morgan asked.
Ketcham said with a shrug.
"Who knows? Morgan, the most important thing is to sell our stocks. If we are late, it will be too late!"
"Don't worry."
Morgan's eyes sparkled.
"We can wait a little longer. If we do something, we may be able to reduce some of the losses."
I have set up a book club: 335260551. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of this chapter)
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