Manhattan Reborn 1978

Hong Kong.

midnight~

Sham Shui Po, near Apliu Street.

The damp and cold night wind blew on people, trying to take away the last trace of warmth.

Karnes and Bill Gutherland were standing across the street from a shop selling second-hand televisions, watching the TV series being played in the window and remaining silent.

Bill, who had been busy all day, tilted his head and looked at Kanes, who had been wandering around for another day, and asked lazily.

"When are you going to go back to bed?"

"Oh?"

"you are tired?"

"nonsense!"

"You spend all day wandering around in the name of playing games..."

"But I have to be busy tomorrow!"

"Haha~" Kanes tightened his coat, glanced at the three people standing far away on the right, and asked with a smile.

"What is the golden promissory note you just mentioned?"

Bill crossed his arms on his chest, half-leaned on the lamppost, and yawned.

"The gold promissory note is actually a gold price betting contract set against the benchmark gold futures contract."

"It has been the most popular speculative species in Xiangjiang's underground financial trading market in recent years."

"Its price fluctuates, and it will directly quote London gold daily~"

"It also has rules that can increase capital leverage up to eight times, making it very popular among many speculators."

"You mean... gold promissory note = gold futures contract?"

"more or less."

"But it's not legal!"

Bill turned his head and looked in the direction of the central ring, which he couldn't see, and said with a hint of irony.

"Actually, these popular games in Xiangjiang are all leftover from the games played in the City of London~"

"First, a number of powerful banks and gold dealers will join forces to establish preliminary trading rules in the underground trading market."

“Then stock brokerage companies or bank staff recommend it to customers who prefer risky investments.”

"When the number of people entering the game slowly increases, gold promissory note traders will recommend to customers to increase capital leverage in order to obtain more profits in the name of extracting a small amount of transaction fees."

"Oh~" Karnes followed Bill's example and leaned on the other side of the street lamp pole, staring at the shop across the street that was about to sample. He felt very interesting and asked.

"Is the order of this underground transaction stable?"

"How can those behind-the-scenes bookmakers ensure that after making money, the money will not be hacked?"

The smile at the corner of Bill's mouth slowly turned cold in the night breeze: "How else can we guarantee it? Of course it is a credit joint guarantee system!"

"However, the credit joint guarantee system popular here is very different from the way it is played in the City of London."

"It just makes people look more reassured, but it has almost no actual effect."

After listening to Bill's explanation, Karnes suddenly lost interest in such unreliable things, and changed the topic and asked.

"When you went to HSBC today, who did you see?"

"Shen Bi."

"How did he say?"

Bill shrugged with a strange expression and said with a smile: "He is a smart and slippery man who refuses to say anything."

"Then you're not busy in vain?"

"of course not!"

"Even if he doesn't want to tell me everything I need to know, I pretty much have it."

"The most suitable targets for us to attack are the Hutchison Company and its subsidiary Whampoa Company as I mentioned before."

"Hutchison Company was gradually controlled by the Cragg family (commonly translated as: Qi Dezun family) after World War II~"

"It joins Wheelock & Co. controlled by the Madden family, Jardine Matheson & Co. controlled by the Keswick family, and Swire & Co. controlled by the Swire family, and has become the four major British-owned foreign companies in Hong Kong."

"Ten years ago in 69~"

"John Douglas Cragg, the controller of Hutchison, wanted Hutchison to seize the opportunity and surpass Jardine Matheson, which was higher in ranking and strength, so he started a series of acquisition plans."

"But he himself is not good at running and managing companies, which has caused the operating conditions of many acquired companies to become worse and worse. Coupled with the decoupling of the rice dollar from gold in 71, the Hong Kong stock market crash + oil crisis + the plummeting real estate prices in Hong Kong in 73, etc. wait.."

"Jinge Matheson & Co., which was already experiencing operating losses, suffered a loss of more than HK$74 million in 2."

"So in 75, due to his poor management, Hutchison had no choice but to transfer 33.65% of its shares to HSBC. In exchange for a life-saving sum of money, it was able to stabilize the situation and slowly recover."

"However, in the share transfer transaction between Hutchison Bank and HSBC, Whampoa Company was made special and independent by HSBC from Hutchison Bank."

"Because the Huangpu dock, wharf, warehousing and transportation business under the name of Huangpu Company is the best asset among the many subsidiaries of Hutchison Matheson!"

"Huangpu Dockyard, together with Taikoo Dockyard and Naval Dockyard, has become the three major dockyards in Xiangjiang, with the ability to build, transform and repair ocean-going cargo ships exceeding 100,000 tons."

Karnes rubbed his chin with his hand, tried to remember for a moment, and then asked a little confused.

"Is this Qi Dezun family famous?"

"How come I haven't heard of it?"

"Haha~" Bill stared at him sideways and smiled.

"This John Douglas Cragg (Qi Dezun) was born in Rhodesia, a country in southeastern Africa (Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe in 80)."

"His father was a mining engineer who died when he was two years old."

"Afterwards, he followed his mother back to the Isle of Man, where he worked for several years in an Isle of Man bank as an adult."

"When the Isle of Man Regiment was established in 1938, he joined the Regiment for service training and came to Hong Kong as an officer of the Royal Artillery in 40 years."

"At the end of World War II, he was recruited to serve in MI9 because of his outstanding abilities, and was sent to a base in northern Thailand to assist the local army in successfully rescuing a large number of prisoners of war detained by the island country's army."

"He was also awarded the CBE (Military Medal) for his military exploits."

"In 1946, at the age of 28, he left the army with the rank of colonel."

"In the same year, George Madden, who controlled Jardine Matheson, invested in the reorganization of Hutchison Matheson, which had hit the bottom during the war, and accounted for 50% of the shares~"

"Qi Dezun, after marrying Isoline Margaret Cowley of the Manx family, was invited to work at Jardine Matheson, and later transferred to Hutchison Matheson."

"Throughout the 50s, the relationship between Jardine Matheson, Wheelock and Hutchison was extremely close, and the ownership structure was very complex."

"This also paved the way for the three families to fall out."

"In 64, Qi Dezun successfully separated Hutchison and Company from Wheelock and Marden through a very complicated reverse takeover plan, and then established Hutchinson International Co., Ltd. (Hutchison's English name, abbreviated as HIL) .”

"In 67, Qi Dezun won widespread praise for his outstanding leadership during the riots that broke out, and he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 68."

"So in the next 69 years, he felt that he had reached a bottleneck in terms of social status and business development~"

"So when the bull market in the Hong Kong stock market started, he formulated a very aggressive acquisition plan and expanded the number of subsidiaries of Hutchison Matheson from about 30 to nearly 60."

Bill spread his palms and smiled at Karnes: "And we want to obtain the equity from HSBC Bank in order to separate out a few high-quality companies that we are most interested in from among the many subsidiaries of Hutchison Bank. Make an investment.”

Karnes casually glanced at Bill's outstretched hand, curled his lips and shook his head: "Since Shen Bi is unwilling to help, you'd better go find George Sassoon and let him come forward to solve the problem."

"He is a major shareholder of HSBC and can give us a little help..."

"Okay!" What Bill had been waiting for was what Carnes said!

He stood up straight, opened his arms, looked up at the cloudy night sky, and sighed: "I'm starting to like it here."

"Haha~" Kanes said with a smile when he saw a middle-aged man pushing a roadside stall cart swaying towards him after the shop across the street closed.

"Hey~ It's so late, are you hungry too?"

"Come on, treat me to some supper!"

"Huh?" Bill couldn't help laughing.

“It’s okay to have late night snacks~”

"But where will you sleep tonight?"

"It doesn't matter, just find a place."

"Are you going to sleep on the street?"

"That's right!" Kanes spread his hands with a matter-of-fact expression.

"I only have more than 40 Hong Kong dollars left. If I don't budget carefully, I will have to go to the trash can and grab food from wild cats in the next few days."

“So it doesn’t matter where I live now to me!”

"Well, just be safe!" Bill looked at Karnes and felt that he was not joking, but strictly abiding by the rules of the game, and nodded slowly.

"You should eat your own midnight snack, I'm not hungry."

"George Sassoon just rushed back to Xiangjiang this afternoon. He shouldn't have rested yet. I'll go talk to him."

"Oh... take the money!" Kanes stared at the middle-aged man across the street who was about to set up a stall, and extended his hand to Bill and said.

Bill took out a few pieces of change from his pocket and said with a helpless smile: "Are you sure you want to eat...?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Kanes took 10 yuan from his hand, walked happily to the other side of the street, and shouted to the middle-aged man.

"noodles?"

"Give me a bowl!"

"...?"

When the roadside stall owner saw the ghost guy coming towards him, he gestured with his hands like a noodle eater and said "nonsense". .

He smiled and made a wait gesture, skillfully took out a small folding table and small chairs from the four-wheeled vehicle, and invited the ghost to sit down and wait for a while.

Karnes sat on a small chair, tilted his head and glanced at Bill who was standing there looking a little "stupid", waved his hand in disgust and said loudly.

"We'll meet downstairs at Cui Yingying's house at 8:30 tomorrow morning!"

"...Ah!" Bill responded, looking at Karness's relaxed expression and the unknown tune he was humming, which showed that he was in a good mood at the moment.

Could this be the intention and purpose of David playing games with Carnes?

What about the next game?

What about the other difficulty?

What would the difficulty of hell that David set for himself be like?

Emm. .

interesting!

Bill smiled and waved to Karnes, walked to the three people who had been following Karnes and were in charge of security, whispered a few words to them, and drove away.

Karnes crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the stall owner cooking noodles with a somewhat divergent gaze.

The aroma wafting from the pot made him see a very fantastic scene in a trance~

A little boy + a green grassy yard + a white fence + a woman with a vague figure and appearance. .

Her voice is like the sound of nature, her body smells like fresh fruity fragrance, and her movements are soothing and intoxicating. .

In this picture, the young Kanes smiles innocently~

----

new York.

Afternoon~

Manhattan, eighth floor of the Blue Crystal Hotel.

When David walked into the room of his tutor, Professor Bartley, he was somewhat surprised to find old Morgan, Uncle Julie, Pine and Elder chatting happily with his tutor.

"Hi ~ Good afternoon everyone!" David waved to everyone very naturally and greeted everyone with a smile.

Professor Bartlet waved to him with a smile: "Come sit here with me."

"Ok!"

Under the gaze of several people, David walked to the sofa next to Professor Bartley and sat down, and asked curiously.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you!" Pine replied, picking up the teacup with a smile.

"Me?" David pointed to his nose, tilted his head and glanced at his mentor, and said.

"How did you know I brought good news?"

"Oh?"

"What's the good news?" Professor Bartlet glanced at the silent and smiling old Morgan and Julie, and asked in cooperation with David.

David took a deep breath, straightened his body and looked at Old Morgan, with clear eyes and a clear voice.

"I'm going to be a dad!"

"..."

Quiet!

The room became surprisingly quiet as David said these words.

Pine, his mouth was twitching wildly. .

Elder slowly opened his eyes. .

Old Morgan lowered his eyes and frowned.

Julie, the "Mediterranean bad old man", stared at David and narrowed her eyes, not knowing what she was thinking.

Professor Bartlett, resisting the urge to laugh out loud, patted David on the shoulder and scolded.

"You're going to be a father. What's the good news?"

"Do you still want to be a father first and then get married?"

"Hehe~ Yes." David bared his big white teeth and nodded.

He looked directly at David and suddenly thought of an important point. The smile on his lips disappeared and he asked seriously.

"Who's pregnant?"

"Susan."

"Susan? Is she...you?"

"Yes, she's my girlfriend."

"..." Professor Bartlet was speechless.

"Pfft~" Pine couldn't hold it back anymore, so he covered his mouth with his hand, got up and walked quickly to the bathroom.

Elder had a wide-eyed expression on his face, secretly glanced at Old Morgan, frowned and asked David.

"Not long after you got engaged to Lilith, Susan got pregnant... How are you going to deal with it?"

"Oh~" When David heard Elder ask, he seemed to realize that he had shared his happiness with the wrong person in the wrong place. .

However, the embarrassment on his face only lasted for a second, and he looked at Elder with a smile and answered.

"I informed Lilith as soon as I confirmed the matter."

"She was also very happy for me and decided to have a party in the bar tonight to celebrate!"

"Celebrating?!" Elder saw the light in David's eyes and closed his mouth knowingly.

Julie "conjured" a pipe out of nowhere and held it in her hand, pointed it at David, and changed the topic and asked.

"Did you know that we had a very unhappy meeting at the Trilateral Commission meeting today?"

"Well, I just found out."

"What do you think?"

David glanced at his mentor with a hint of caution, and when he saw him smiling and nodding lightly, he relaxed and sat back on the sofa, smiling.

"What do you want to ask about?"

"There are no outsiders here, so you can just say whatever you want~" After Julie said this, she deliberately swept Old Morgan with the pipe in her hand, which made David's relaxed mood tense up again, and he nodded slowly. .

"Although I don't know what you discussed at the meeting..."

"But I think there will definitely be two key issues that prevent you from reaching a consensus in a short period of time."

"First, can our funds enter island countries more freely for investment."

"Second, whether the assets we hold can be successfully cashed out before the Japanese yen depreciates and the rice dollar appreciates, or we can choose to turn virtual reality into reality and make deeper investments."

"Hmm~" Julie nodded, looking at David with less dissatisfaction and more expectancy in her eyes.

"Let's start from these two points and talk more~"

"Ok!"

When David heard Julie initially agreeing with his point of view, he glanced at Pine who had returned from the bathroom, quickly organized his thoughts, and spoke at his own pace.

"First of all, in recent decades since World War II, island countries have always strictly restricted the entry of foreign investment."

"Even if multiple foreign investors invest in a certain company or enterprise together, the combined equity cannot exceed the maximum amount restricted by its policy."

"So during the rapid development period of the island country in the past thirty years, although the returns that foreign investment could obtain were very high, the total amount was not satisfactory."

"Policies like those used by island countries to restrict the inflow of foreign capital to protect the internal stability of their own economies and enterprises also limit their development ceiling in disguise!"

David gave Pine a look of thanks, looked at Julie raising a finger, and smiled.

"In my opinion, the island country also wants to use a closed-door protective policy to prevent its domestic assets from being quickly carved up and swallowed up by foreign capital."

"But another major hidden danger of this protective policy is that it cannot allow the domestic funds that have been accumulated to completely go abroad and occupy a more powerful position and voice in the international currency market."

"So, if an island country wants to relax its restrictive policies on foreign capital inflows, there are only two underlying logics."

“First, further internationalize the currency issued by island countries so that it has a higher credit rating, purchasing power and influence in the international currency market.”

"For example, in the past few years, the Japanese yen, the currency issued by the island country, was successfully listed on the Chicago Exchange foreign exchange futures market~"

"For example, a few days ago, a business group from the island nation came to New York and spent high prices to purchase a lot of real estate and high-quality assets, etc."

“Second, after the initial success of the island country’s domestic industrialization upgrade, more companies will move to the international stage and quickly conquer cities and markets around the world, so that companies that have a monopoly on high value-added industries can enter a A new stage of rapid development.”

"For example, small-displacement cars produced in island countries have now slowly emerged from the bottom consumer markets of many countries with the outbreak of the oil crisis again, and have been widely recognized by many consumers."

David turned to look at his mentor, Professor Bartley, and said with a smile: "When a crisis comes, how to save living expenses while ensuring income has always been a huge problem that troubles ordinary families!"

"So if oil prices skyrocket, just changing to a more fuel-efficient car can solve this problem~"

"If I buy a small-displacement car made in an island country, I can save about 10 yuan in gas money every week."

"What about ten years?"

"In ten years, I will be able to save money to buy a new car!"

"On the contrary~"

"If I buy a car with an ordinary domestic displacement, I will have wasted the money I could spend on a new car in ten years."

"In comparison,"

“Who wouldn’t choose it?”

"I will definitely do it anyway!"

After David said this, he looked at old Morgan, who had been silent, and said very sincerely.

"If you also want to withdraw investment from island countries and cash out, I think it is better to find some companies with more growth potential for them."

"If the island country in the future can really gradually relax restrictions and controls on foreign investment, its domestic high-quality assets will definitely maintain a rapid growth trend within ten years, allowing us to make a lot of money."

"Of course~"

"This is just some personal advice from me, not..."

"Yeah!" Julie affirmed David and said with a smile before Old Morgan could speak.

"Please continue to talk more about this aspect~"

"Except for cars!"

"Ok."

From the corner of his eye, David received the encouraging look from Pine, slowly relaxed and smiled.

"How to choose industries or companies with greater growth potential for strategic investment in the island country? I need to analyze and interpret it from a longer-term perspective~"

"So, I need about 25-30 minutes, okay?"

"Okay~ Just tell me." Julie put the pipe in her mouth and glanced at Elder beside her.

Elder was stunned for two seconds and quickly understood what he meant. He stood up and walked to his briefcase, found two pieces of paper and pen, returned to his seat and handed one of them to Pine. .

Pine took the paper and pen, couldn't help but smile and pointed at David a few times, shook his head, and was about to start taking notes.

Professor Bartlett, who had been sitting next to David and watching silently, saw the "tacit understanding" between Pine, Elder and David, raised his eyebrows and kicked old Morgan with his foot, with a hint of provocation in his eyes.

Old Morgan's mouth twitched and he said nothing, obviously wanting to see what other "tricks" David could "perform" next~

Seeing his reaction, Professor Bartley sighed secretly in his heart, stood up and said to several people.

"I'm going to get you some drinks and snacks."

"Okay, thank you!" David stood up and said a very sincere message to his instructor.

Professor Bartlet waved his hand casually, looked back at Julie, and joked.

"It doesn't matter if you hit me a few times or curse me a few words."

"He's still young, don't be really angry!"

"...Okay!" Julie tilted her head and looked at Professor Bartlet, feeling that he was serious, and nodded with a smile.

David's eyes turned around the two of them several times, and the "hanging" stone in his heart finally relaxed a little, and he sighed secretly.

"Being a father...is really not easy!"