.

The confrontation between the country and the United States has undoubtedly begun, just like two people running towards each other, fighting to the death for the Pacific hegemony of the next century. The winner will become the police in the Pacific, and the losers will find nothing. The curtain is gorgeously opened, and fierce battles are staged on every battlefield.

As early as the early 17th century, the Dutch invented the modern capitalist system. Although many basic concepts of the capitalist system first appeared in the Italian Renaissance, the Dutch, especially the citizens of Amsterdam, were the real creators of the modern capitalist system. They organically unified banks, stock exchanges, credit, insurance, and limited liability companies into an interconnected financial and commercial system. The explosive growth of wealth brought about by this made the Netherlands, a small country in Europe, quickly become one of the strong countries in Europe.

The Dutch invented the earliest techniques to manipulate the stock market, such as short-selling (selling stocks that they do not own, hoping to buy back after the stock price falls), short-selling attacks (bearraid, refers to insiders conspiring to sell short-selling stocks until other stock owners panic and sell their own stocks, causing the stock price to fall, and insiders can buy back short-selling stocks at a low price to make a profit), crossover (syndicates, 1.u|price), and hoarding stocks (corners, individuals or groups secretly hoard or buy out the entire circulation supply of a certain stock or commodity, forcing any other buyer who needs to buy such stock or commodity to buy at the manipulated price).

Also in the Netherlands, the "tulip fanaticism" broke out. This was the first recorded financial bubble in human history. In the mid-16th century, tulips were introduced from Turkey to Western Europe. Soon people began to have a fanaticism about the plant. By the early 17th century, some treasures were sold at unusually high prices, and the wealthy were competing to display the latest and rarest varieties in their gardens. By the early 17th century, this fashion led to a classic speculative fanaticism. People bought tulips no longer for their inherent value or for viewing, but for their unlimited price increase and profit from it (the idea that always expects someone to be willing to bid higher has long been called the silly theory of investment).

In 1635, a kind of called childer:=.|1615 Rolling (Dutch currency). If you want to figure out what such money was worth in the Dutch economy in the early 17th century, you only need to know 4 bulls—equivalent to a trailer. It only costs 480 florins, 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms of milk)..c Rolling. However, the price of tulips continued to rise. The following year, a rare variety of tulips (at that time there were only two in the Netherlands) was sold for 4,600 florins. In addition, ::) paid for a brand new carriage, two gray horses and a complete set of horse harnesses.

However, all financial bubbles are as fragile as their names in the real world. When people realize that this speculation does not create wealth, but only transfer wealth, there will always be people who wake up, and at this time, the tulip bubble should burst. At some point, when an unknown man sells tulips—or has more courage and short sells, others will follow, and soon. The selling fanaticism will be comparable to the previous purchase fanaticism. As a result, the price collapses, and thousands of people in this doomed collapse will lose their fortunes.

It was the group of people who created this situation in history that established this small colony at the mouth of the Hudson River in North America. From the beginning, it was different from other colonies established on the east coast of North America that century. The Puritans of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and the Catholics of Maryland, all came to this New World to worship the God of their choice. For these colonists, the first thing they could think of whenever they came to a place was to build a magnificent city on the hills and build a region of goodness that others would follow.

The name of this area of ​​good fortune is New York, and there is also famous Wall Street!!!

If the Tulip Age is a gambling field with huge risks, then in the last few years of the 19th century, the risks of the US stock market could no longer be described as huge. Over 100 million yuan of funds were just a small wave and could not cause a big wave. At most, more than one billion US dollars were playing games. If you neglect it, you would lose more than a country's annual income.

Van der Ford was undoubtedly the greatest stock god at the end of the 19th century. He never mined an iron ore when he bought and sold iron ore stocks. Instead, he bought iron ore and operated it with unparalleled efficiency, expanded, and tried his best to do everything possible to put their role to the limit, and finally sold them, leaving all his followers to pieces.

As early as 1896, when Americans generally believed that since 1862, the price of iron ore was declining. The income of iron ore exceeded $100. Even measured by mid-19th century standards, this income was insignificant.

1893

The Herald reported: ‘Of all mineral stocks traded, iron has the lowest value.’

But Van derford noticed what others ignored. In future production, upstream manufacturers will inevitably control downstream manufacturers. The iron ore controller will become the final controller. The iron ore around Lake Superior in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota not only has large reserves but also has high grades. These iron ores are controlled by the steel kings Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller.

Ironically, when Carnegie deliberately acquired the ownership of Bengang and ambitiously raised the price of iron ore, forcing North China to pay more. The weight in Van Defoe's hand happened to be Carnegie's purchase of Bengang for $200 million, and the Northern China government had to cooperate fully. All of this was not known by Carnegie.

Van der Ford did not participate in the management of Carnegie. But he has been buying stocks continuously, although many Wall Street people think Carnegie is a good stock that can be sold in short land. Fowler wrote: "Van der Ford got involved in this mess on Wall Street. He did not keep the things he did secret. He just calmly bought a large amount of stocks thrown by those who were bearish on Carnegie. There is no doubt that this Chinese nationality does not understand the dangers of the futures market, so he will become the largest fat sheep in Wall Street's history.'

Short sellers were waiting for the price of Carnegie stock to plummet, and at one point seemed to have obtained information that was beneficial to them. On January 23, 1898, Carnegie Company and North China's price negotiations were not approved. At this time, Carnegie stock price was only more than US$50. By the 219th, there was news that it was possible to increase the price by 30% after the negotiations. The price had risen to US$116.875.

But on that day, there was a huge force shorting Carnegie. Behind this short selling frenzy, the biggest seller was Van Defoe's "old friend" - Chairman of Carnegie Base.

The price fell to $80, but Van der Fort continued to buy. ‘Whenever someone shorted the stock, a huge hand always reached out to catch them. They disappeared from people’s sight, as if locked into a huge iron box.’

The reason for short selling began to be clear at 225. In the afternoon of that day, North China announced that it would interrupt negotiations with Carnegie base indefinitely. The reason was that Carnegie proposed an unacceptable price. Carnegie's stock price plummeted to $72 like a "a bird hit by a ground". Wall Street short sellers were hopeful waiting for Van der Fort to make a fool of himself the next day.

But the stock price did not fall the next day, but it rose sharply to $97 to $106. The New York Times (the main holders of the new tickets were Mr. Van Defoe and his friends. As long as short sellers were willing to continue selling to them Carnegie stocks, they had enough cash to pay in the bank at any time. The total number of Carnegie stocks sold by short speculators has exceeded the total share capital of Carnegie base.'

When the short-selling contract expired, these short-selling speculators had to buy Carnegie stock from Van Defoe for delivery. In the end, Van Defoe, who had never been involved in Wall Street, defeated the most experienced speculator in the United States in the largest stock short-squeezing case in Wall Street's history.

On Monday, Monday, the 229th, the newspaper reported that short sellers may need 50,000 shares to fulfill the contract. When the city council members who had shorted Carnegie for speculation saw that something was wrong, they immediately changed their original position and granted the bus line operation rights to Carnegie again. Van Defoe then allowed the stock price to drop to $94 so that he might use the city council members to buy stocks at this price in the future, and they were freed from the short contract.

The New York Times was obviously happy about this. The newspaper read: 'In this contest, the public's sympathy was completely on Van der Ford's side, and the joy on Wall Street was beyond words, and everyone celebrated the shameless city council's attempt to manipulate stocks completely and received double revenge.'

Although Van Defoe let go of city council officials who might be useful in the future, he was not so kind to speculators on Wall Street. Throughout the summer, amid the curses of the short-selling camp, he pushed the stock price up little by little until the short-selling speculator finally closed the position at $180. So far, Van Defoe not only bought control of Carnegie Iron Mining, but also added a lot of his own wealth to the original basis.

At the same time, 'Van der Fort' was also continuing to buy shares in Michigan Iron Mine, which stretched along the east bank of the Michigan River to East Albany. By 1897, van der Fort had been a member of the board of directors of Michigan Iron Mine and was one of the largest shareholders.

Obviously, some speculators who did not participate in short selling of Carnegie stocks believe that because Van Defoe was in the Carnegie short squeeze battle at this time, they had the opportunity to use Michigan Iron Ore stocks to do something. Just when Carnegie stock prices reached their highest point, they launched a short-selling attack on Michigan Iron Ore stocks.

|Short selling of Michigan forces opponents to increase margin, create panic and further declines, attempting to eventually close positions at low levels to make a big profit.

Van derford immediately fought back, asking his broker to buy out all the "seller's option" in the market. At that time, stock trading was usually only delivered within a period of time after the transaction was completed, usually 10 days, 20 or 30, and the exact delivery time was determined by one party. If the delivery time was determined by the buyer, it was called "buyer's option"; if the delivery time was determined by the seller, it was called "seller's option". Most short selling operations at that time were not carried out by borrowing stocks like now. Instead, it was carried out by selling "seller's option". These sellers and buyers' "seller's option" are different from modern options. Current call options and put options have rights but are not obliged to perform the contract.

After buying all the seller's options, Van der Ford and his companions actually declared that they were preparing to short Michigan stocks, but the plan brewing in Van der Ford's mind was more brilliant than short squeeze, as financier Russell said, Van 'he's to finance as Shakespeare to poetry and Michelangelo to painting'.

Due to the involvement of the Carnegie stock battle, many speculators believed that Van Defoe must be insufficient funds at this time. "Van Defoe" did not refute the rumors. Instead, he asked his agent to contact other brokers, hoping that they would help him "turn" the stock (turnock). Let those speculators believe that their speculation is correct. "Turn stock" is a means by which stock short squeezers can buy out stocks with minimal cash - of course, this method.

Many brokers who sold Van Defoe's "buyer option" were attracted by this and believed with confidence that Van Defoe took such a risk because of the collapse of its capital chain, so they immediately sold Michigan Iron Mine stocks. But they were wrong, Van Defoe had enough money. Of course, they did not know this. As a result, they sold the stocks to brokers who were actually working for Van Defoe, and according to the contract, they had to deliver the stocks to Van Defoe at some time in the future.

In early February 1898, Van Defoe closed the net. When the contract expired, short-selling speculators went to the market to buy Michigan stocks, but found that there were no sellers in the market, because all Michigan stocks were in the hands of Van Defoe. The stock price soared from RMB to RMB 180 almost overnight. Van Defoe began to ask those speculators to fulfill the contract and deliver the stocks to him. These poor unlucky guys had to face the only seller in the market, that is, Van Defoe. Van Defoe was magnanimous and did not insist that those short-selling speculators who were deeply trapped in the traps he built immediately to fulfill the contract. On the contrary, he was willing to lend them the necessary stocks at this time, but the daily interest rate was as high as 5%.

In this way, just as General Grant seized Vicksburg, just as the greatest battle in the Western Hemisphere, the Battle of Gettysburg, determined the fate of the United States, just as the streets were covered in corpses after the biggest riot in New York, Van der Ford played the role of commander Hannibal in the Battle of Wall Street. He twice surrounded and annihilated bear market speculators, bringing him and his companions huge wealth of dollars. This short squeeze battle is also recognized as a masterpiece in the history of financial manipulation. The New York Herald declared in 313: "The Wall Street market has never seen such a successful stock short squeeze, and the Chinese have created miracles."

However, Carnegie, who lost some of his property in this battle, was not willing to give up. He was still secretly looking forward to a chance to make a comeback, but he did not have enough weight in his hand. For this reason, he knocked on the door of Morgan's office. A more tragic war was about to begin.

In another place, the US president issued an order. Instructed to attack the Spanish colony of the Philippines directly.
Chapter completed!