My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 390 Why not raise a glass to reminisce about a distant first love?

There is no tradition of stock trading in Shangzhou.

Therefore, Wei Dong's impression of stocks was really limited to the three words "titanium dioxide".

It's all because the famous wine of Shangzhou is called Taibai Brew, and the mountain where the old Taoist practiced is called Taibai Rock, the place where, according to legend, Li Bai wrote the legend of bidding farewell to Baidi in the morning.

Yu Qili also seems to have never had any interest in stock trading.

Therefore, Rang Weidong, who continued down this path, never thought about making money from stocks.

Having traveled the world for two years, I seem to have never heard of this term before.

But it seems that this is something that is inherently admired in the genes of Shanghai: "When I was a child, I always heard the old people in the town talk about the glory of the Shanghai stock market, and I remembered it in my mind... Then last November, when Lanzhi heard that the factory she often went to was going to be restructured and issued shares, you taught her to do shares, and even more so to support the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, so she came back and asked me for advice."

Wei Dong seemed to be deliberately trying to forget that crazy time: "When will you teach her how to manage shares?"

Old Zhang relayed: "Yuezhou, she said that you started a company with top Cantonese cuisine masters in Yuezhou and made the business very successful. So this factory will definitely succeed if you use this method. It's just that others don't realize how insightful you are yet."

Wei Dong suddenly remembered that when he was in Guangzhou, he had indeed brought Zhang Lanzhi with him the whole time when he opened the joint venture company with Master Liao. Later, he even got a Hong Kong relative's identity and registered it as a joint venture. As a result, he and Chi Shiming have now followed the same method to open a Hong Kong-funded company.

But Zhang Lanzhi had clearly misunderstood: "Which factory?"

Old Zhang gestured in the direction: "There are two factories. One is the vacuum machinery factory you came to Shanghai to set up, and the other is the audio electronic components factory where you rented an office. I heard that they were among the first batch of factories in China to undergo shareholding reform. Lanzhi said that you really needed these two products and would definitely be willing to take shares, so she bought their stock."

Wei Dong narrowed his eyes: "How much did you buy?"

Old Zhang counted on his fingers: "At the end of last year, both factories raised 500,000 yuan in share capital. 35% was owned by the legal person and 65% was sold to the market, each with 325,000 shares. At that time, the branch company happened to have 415,000 yuan in cash from the sale of titanium ingots, and planned to buy 200,000 shares from each side."

People who know absolutely nothing about stocks and finance are making reckless moves.

Wei Dong had no idea what historical turning point these two factories were going through.

It was just a coincidence. The vacuum machinery factory not only had a small workshop making food machinery, but also produced vacuum-sealed products, from light bulbs in every household to television picture tubes that have been mass-produced in recent years. Zhang Lanzhi stumbled upon this information by chance.

Wei Dong was initially somewhat helpless: "From a financial regulation standpoint, this is unauthorized misappropriation of public funds. At the very least, the destination should be reported. If public funds are misappropriated for investment, who will cover the losses, and if they make a profit, they will quietly pocket the money?"

Old Zhang looked completely surprised: "Time was very tight that day. As soon as I got the news, I had to rush to the counter. Lanzhi said that I would definitely agree, since it was public funds and no one would dare to secretly pocket it... No, our Zhang family has never embezzled public funds in our entire lives!"

Wei Dong secretly rubbed the bridge of his nose, thinking to himself, "Damn, you guys are so simple and honest coming from the mountains?"

If it were Shen Laosan, wouldn't he be extremely suspicious?
No, it seems she doesn't know either.

But did I inadvertently introduce you to this wicked way of thinking?

All I could say was, "And then?"

However, the development of events was completely unexpected. At that time, the stock price of fifty yuan per share was already very expensive, which made the market, which did not have many wealthy people, hesitate.

Even if some families have money saved up or funds overseas, they dare not reveal it casually.

This is Shanghai, which has undergone large-scale public-private partnerships.

If there's a slight lull in activity and no one's buying, it's possible that everyone is waiting to see how things develop.

Unfortunately, Zhang Lanzhi, that hothead, saw the factory manager who had bought the food vacuum machine on stage and immediately bought 100,000 each of them using Dongsheng Trading's qualifications!

Because this already represents 20% of the shares, no single shareholder is allowed to hold more.

Who would have thought that this stock issuance model would encounter a financial behemoth so soon after its trial run!
By 1985, Rang Weidong had amassed a large amount of capital through several best-selling products, enough to challenge the financial markets...

Hearing this, Wei Dong broke out in a cold sweat: "You guys are messing around. If there were really dozens or hundreds of stocks, it wouldn't be a problem for you to buy more. This is the first time you've bought and sold stocks, and you're ruining the business... This could be considered a loss of state-owned assets!"

Old Zhang rubbed his hands together: "Luckily, the audio electronics component factory proved that we had rented an office, and they knew we were a legitimate company selling Feiyan sanitary napkins, X cameras, and Hilti jeans. The vacuum food machinery factory also recognized you and Lanzhi, so they agreed to become shareholders and issued such a large amount of stock, plus interest debit cards..."

When Wei Dong took it, he saw that in the era before computer accounting, each stock was a real ticket with a face value of fifty yuan.

In other words, the 200,000 yuan worth of stocks actually included 4,000 physical vouchers, as well as a paper bank passbook from that era, used to record dividend payments.

At that time, stocks were truly used to help companies raise funds for development.

When a company makes money, it must distribute dividends to its shareholders at the end of the year.

However, the two interest cards, which listed the vacuum electronics factory and the audio component factory, only showed profits of a little over three hundred and five hundred respectively.

Wei Dong was amused: "Is this the dividend you each earned from investing 100,000 yuan?" 100,000 yuan, you could earn more than a few hundred yuan by buying jeans. What are you bookworms up to?

Furthermore, what about the financial system? "This happened before New Year's Day last year, why wasn't it reported to the company?"

The key issue is that it cost 200,000 yuan, but it wasn't reflected in the accounts.

Having already reached the restaurant entrance, Lao Zhang still held the small artificial leather bag a little tighter, and somewhat reservedly invited them in to take their seats before opening the bag and handing over a bankbook: "When we took the lead, the entire stock was immediately snapped up, and then the stock price skyrocketed. Every day, people from both factories were trying to get us to resell it... If it weren't for our military representative ID, someone would have slammed their fist on the table and threatened us."

Wei Dong could almost picture a bookish nerd who had stumbled upon stocks amidst the storm. He didn't know about the stock market frenzy that followed the reform and opening up, but he could guess that all those first movers would make a fortune.

What follows is inevitably all kinds of covetousness and competition, and even the willingness to tear each other apart.

However, this family happens to have a special status that makes it difficult to target them as long as they don't break the law, and no one can predict who might be implicated behind this.

He casually flipped through it: "It's gone up so much... Holy crap!"

The passbook clearly showed a balance of over 27 yuan. No, this kind of paper passbook allows you to see the previous transaction amounts.

From the very beginning, there was a continuous expenditure of 200,000, which was obviously to pay back the principal from buying stocks and break even!

This is the kind of model that Wu Shengyun suspected: using 200,000 yuan of goods funds to make a quick investment deal, and as long as it's fast enough, you can't even tell when it's returned.

However, there are 200,000 yuan coming in and going out here every month, which seems to be used to move funds between accounts.

Did you earn 470,000?

To everyone's surprise, Lao Zhang actually said, "It's increased thirtyfold..."

Mrs. Zhang was clearly not used to sitting at the large round table, while Li Erfeng had gotten used to ordering and handling the dishes over the years. Mainly, she felt at ease with the income, especially when she saw that the dishes were only five or six yuan a serving, which wasn't too expensive. She quickly pointed out that eight dishes and a soup should be set out.

The girls even tried to help with plating, but were stopped by Stone and Mao'er.

So Wei Dong froze, dumbfounded, staring at Lao Zhang: "How much?!"

Old Zhang himself was neither surprised nor pleased, typical of a state-owned enterprise.

No matter how much money the government has, it's still government money: "Theoretically, these stocks can't be bought or sold, but there are scalpers right next to the counter who can trade them. From New Year's Day to after the Spring Festival, there was a situation of high prices but low supply, with more sellers than buyers. Both factories suggested that we sell some to stimulate the market, so we sold 10% of them and put it back into the sales account. Then every month we used the proceeds to buy some back, and the surplus accumulated like this. Lanzhi bought a house as you instructed, and this is the money left over."

It made Wei Dong feel a chill run down his spine.

I thought my own business was doing quite well, and I was making a decent profit. Excluding the later joint ventures like jeans, the daily gross profit of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan was the main support for the construction.

Compared to those who play the stock market, they're utter trash!
"Then the value of the stocks still held..." This scumbag lord still has to calculate it.

Old Zhang earnestly reported the data: "5,724,823 yuan. This is the purpose of our buying and selling every month. We keep a close eye on price changes. I also went back to my hometown to consult with my seniors. Although this is not a real stock market, we can try this approach. There will be a long period of growth because there are only two stocks in total right now. Everyone is scrambling to buy them, so the price will definitely continue to rise."

This is practically a myth...

It's not that the stock's 30-fold increase is miraculous; Wei Dong even speculated that once the Shanghai Stock Exchange is officially established, a 30-fold increase wouldn't be anything special.

The good thing is that he kept his promise and kept an eye out for ways to go abroad.

Even when she herself wasn't very well-off, she quietly squeezed out 200,000 yuan of her own savings to pave the way for her studies abroad.

Just as he was unaware that Zhang Lanzhi was buying and selling stocks, he also quietly earned six million without knowing whether he was arranging his studies abroad, but he didn't run away with the money.

Even if they don't run away, no one will know about these millions if they're hidden away.

The physical stock certificates have stamps on the back; the first stamp is the factory's stamp, and the second stamp is that of Dongsheng Trading's Shanghai branch.

Damn, back in the day when every street had a seal-carving stall, this seal wasn't even carved by the Zhang family themselves.

So, just like later property and car ownership certificates, it shows the record of each transaction.

Among the stock certificates shown, some only had two stamps, while others had more than a dozen stamps on them!
The stamps, each the size of a fingernail, were densely packed together, resembling crowdfunding fingerprints.

The couple actually just held onto these few million worth of stocks, waiting for Wei Dong to come over: "Lan Zhi said she'll hand them over to you whenever you come. We heard the city is setting up a stock market and will issue more stocks. We don't know what to do next."

Just like when faced with this sumptuous meal, Lao Zhang was clearly unsure of what to do, having never experienced anything like it before.

Did Wei Dong feel that they should at least have a bottle of Maotai to celebrate?

(End of this chapter)