A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

Chapter 222: Continue to rob money
After returning to Shanghai, there was only half a month left for Chen Guangliang's wedding. Fortunately, someone helped with the preparations, otherwise it would have been too busy to make it in time.

On this day, Chen Guangliang hosted a banquet at the Shangri-La Hotel to entertain Yang Yanan, broker No. 39 of the Shanghai Chinese Cotton and Cloth Exchange (abbreviated as the Cotton Exchange), who was accompanied by Wu Xinhe and Hu Jinshun from the Yangtze River Money House.

During the dinner, Yang Yannan said respectfully, "Mr. Chen is a big shot in the gold standard market. Now that he comes to the Yarn Exchange, he will definitely win."

In the Yarn Exchange, many brokers are the "royal brokers" of textile tycoons, and can even be said to be their subordinates.

Yang Yanan is a relatively independent broker who specializes in providing brokerage services to individual speculators. Of course, he also comes from a textile background.

Hearing the compliment, Chen Guangliang smiled and said, "Although I am very happy that Mr. Yang praised me like this, I may disappoint Mr. Yang this time because I only plan to have a little fun."

Yang Yannan immediately said, "See, this is the reason for Mr. Chen's success. For unfamiliar industries, he first makes tentative investments, and then makes a big move after he learns the tricks."

"Haha" Chen Guangliang laughed. This agent is quite interesting.

But he was right, Chen Guangliang really thought so. Of course, he only did two things: one was around September 918th, and the other was in the first half of 1937. He sold short in the former and bought long in the latter. That was all.

"Mr. Yang, I have a question. If I don't have any physical short positions, how do I settle at the end of the month?"

Yang Yannan immediately said, "Generally, you don't need to wait until delivery to buy back the goods. Or, in more serious cases, you can buy them from other places on the delivery date. When it comes to cotton yarn transactions, it's best to avoid large-scale short squeezes where the seller can't deliver the yarn. But Mr. Chen, don't worry about it. After all, the market is still huge, so it generally won't be affected."

Ultimately, there are some restrictions on naked short selling, but there are also significant loopholes that can be exploited. Unless there are major issues, the exchange won't intervene.

Moreover, the market conditions of spot and futures are similar.

Of course, nothing is absolute. In the first half of 1937, the "yarn exchange crisis" broke out. Some bullish forces pushed the price of cotton yarn, which was originally between 180 and 210 yuan per bag, up to more than 300 yuan. As a result, the cotton reserves in Shanghai did not correspond to the trading quantity, and the sellers were unable to deliver the cotton yarn, which was a "short squeeze". Later, the commander-in-chief was alarmed and the matter was thoroughly investigated.

After all, this is raw material related to people's livelihood, and malicious speculation will have a huge impact.

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "That's right. My funds are not that big, and I plan to buy more!"

Yang Yannan said, "Yes, Mr. Chen, please make the arrangements."

Cotton yarn futures are delivered in May, July and September.

Chen Guangliang plans to arrange a 'long (buy)' move next, and first buy a quota of 100 million to test the waters.

The current price of a bag of cotton yarn is 230. Considering the end of the off-season and the impact of floods, the price of cotton yarn still has room to rise.

After cashing out the losses from government bonds, Chen Guangliang had a cash flow of 300 million, of which 200 million was in the form of benchmark gold, deposited in the vaults of several major banks.

The remaining 100 million is ocean money, which is used to establish the bank.

The 80 yuan each invested in "Jiawang Coal Mine" and "Times Pictures" were all loans, and the yuan is also Chen Guangliang's largest debt at present.

As for the loan from HSBC (20 pounds), it has all been converted into gold and stored in the HSBC vault. It is not considered a liability at all.

This day.

With the introduction of Zhang Xianchen, the comprador of the Mercantile Bank (Standard Chartered Bank), Chen Guangliang came to the Mercantile Bank building on Huangpu Road and met Macquarie, the head of the Mercantile Bank.

Because he had no dealings with Mercantile Bank, he had to ask his "old acquaintance" Zhang Xianchen to help him arrange the loan.

In his office, Zhang Xianchen introduced Macquarie, "Macquarie Boss, this is Mr. Chen. He is very influential in the Shanghai business community!"

Macquarie had obviously heard of Chen Guangliang, but he said arrogantly, "Is that Mr. Chen who just led the Eastern Football Team to victory over our Western Merchants Team?"

Wow, I didn’t expect you to be a fan.

Chen Guangliang said directly: "This is the charm of competitive sports, everything is possible!"

Macquarie didn't expect Chen Guangliang to answer like this. He immediately regained his gentlemanly demeanor and said, "That's a very reasonable statement. Please take a seat!"

You're polite right away.

Foreigners are like this. You can't be timid, otherwise they will think you are incompetent and won't even want to do business with you.

On the contrary, if you show courage and determination, they may even chase you and work with you.

Next, Zhang Xianchen introduced the situation of 'Yangtze River Taxi' and finally said, "Macquarie Bank, Mr. Chen hopes to borrow 15 pounds from Macquarie Bank."

Chen Guangliang took the opportunity to mortgage everything he could and invested in the British pound to gain foreign exchange profits.

However, shipping cannot be mortgaged for sure, as it is like a bank’s ‘black book’, as the ship is at sea and the risks are unknown.

But his Changjiang Taxi fleet has 270 new cars (Chevrolets) and 20 trucks, worth more than 300 million yuan; and he has no debt.

Macquarie said, "If it's a car, you should get a mortgage at a discount. Zhang, don't you understand this?"

Zhang Xianchen immediately said, "Macquarie boss, Mr. Chen's reputation is also collateral. He is very wealthy, a real estate tycoon, a gold tycoon, and a newspaper tycoon in Shanghai. He has basically no debts."

He could earn a brokerage fee of 3000 pounds from this loan, and he also felt that Chen Guangliang's debt situation was very good, so he acted as a matchmaker.

Macquarie may still have doubts about Chen Guangliang, but he trusts the comprador very much because Zhang Xianchen is also the guarantor.

"Okay, this loan is feasible."

No matter how much Chen Guangliang said, it was not as effective as the comprador's few words.

Of course, if Chen Guangliang's collateral was "high-quality property", there would be no problem in applying to any British bank, or even a foreign company.

"Daoqi" is recognized as "hard currency" in the Shanghai banking community, and about 30% of bank collateral is "Daoqi (house deeds)".

Exit the Macquarie Bank Building.

Chen Guangliang said to Zhang Xianchen, "Mr. Zhang, thank you for your help this time. The commission will be given to you as soon as possible."

Zhang Xianchen said with satisfaction, "Mr. Chen, you're too polite. I didn't expect you to come and borrow money. I heard you made a lot of money in real estate and auctions."

After he finished speaking, a concerned expression appeared on his face.

Apparently, he was testing Chen Guangliang's intentions in borrowing pounds. Chen Guangliang also released a false rumor, saying, "Don't you think the gold price still has room to rise? Keep investing!"

"I see"

At this time, Zhang Xianchen also invested a lot of money in the Rongkang Money House to speculate on contracts. This money house was run by Xi Qisun, a descendant of the Xi family of Dongting Lake.

Zhang Xianchen originally married a girl from the Xi family, and it was through the Xi family that he was introduced to become a comprador.

The Xi family was not only a comprador for HSBC, but also for Standard Chartered Bank. In short, this family was a comprador for many banks, including Yili, Defeng, and American Express. The number was too great. The Xi family also had a large population. Although the third-generation comprador of HSBC was shot and killed, other members of the Xi family were still compradors.

However, this kind of comprador is "rich but powerless", and is called a "running dog of imperialism", so he is easily targeted.

Coming back to the topic, it was in this money shop that Zhang Xianchen invested, and he lost everything in 1935 (the price of silver rose). He had hoped that his four sons would help him, after all, each of them was given oceans when the family property was divided. However, when it comes to money, the relationship between father and son is not necessarily reliable. The four sons broke off contact with him one after another, and Zhang Xianchen died in bankruptcy and frustration.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Zhang Xianchen deliberately put on a show for his creditors.

After saying goodbye to Zhang Xianchen, Chen Guangliang got into his car in a good mood.

He could earn more than 4 pounds from this foreign exchange operation, which was hundreds of thousands of silver dollars.

Sure enough, finance is always the most profitable business!
What if the pound does not depreciate?
Chen Guangliang thinks this is impossible. Many countries have abolished the gold standard in this wave, and only the United States has strengthened the gold standard.

After obtaining a loan from Standard Chartered Bank, Chen Guangliang decisively arranged for the Yangtze River Money House to purchase spot gold from the Gold Exchange and then deposit it in a safe in the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

In the chaotic times, renting a safe deposit box in a bank to store "yellow, white and green" (gold, silver dollars, US dollars) as well as valuables such as calligraphy and paintings, contracts, etc., has indeed become the first choice for many famous people at sea.

Banks have been investing huge sums of money in building safe deposit vaults for almost three or four decades.

Of course, there are currently fewer safes in Chinese banks.

It is expected that the new building of Shanghai Commercial Bank will be completed after September this year. A huge safe deposit box warehouse will be installed, and the capacity of safes will be expanded to 9.

Chen Guangliang had already rented several of them in advance and prepared to store them for financial purposes.

Under the later International Hotel was also the huge safe door of the "Sihui Savings Association (a financial institution jointly established by the Four Banks of Northern China)".

Gold Exchange.

"Chen Guangliang has appeared. Is there going to be another big move?"

"No way, the Changjiang Bank is just doing small business now, but I heard they bought a lot of spot goods."

"This is so confusing! Last month, the gold exchange's 'pass-through fee' for spot trading was only 0.05% of futures trading. Who would trade spot trading now?"

Last month, the futures commission of the Gold Exchange was 95 yuan, while the spot commission was only 500 yuan. This is the gap.

"That's true. Since you're optimistic about gold, why not just trade in futures? The losses are really huge!"

Some people were discussing this, but undoubtedly many people knew Chen Guangliang, the 'Gold King'. After all, he made a fortune of five million here last year.

Shanghai is a place full of legends. Wang Boyuan made millions speculating in gold, and Yang Shousheng, the government bond tycoon, is said to have started buying government bonds in the mid-20s and eventually amassed a fortune of nearly ten million.
Hu Jinshun came up to Chen Guangliang and said with a smile, "Boss, since you arrived, the price has been driven up. It seems everyone knows your name!"

"It doesn't matter. I don't care about this little fluctuation!"

Chen Guangliang was just strolling around. He hadn't been here for a long time, so he left quickly after a while.

Many of those who speculated with him in the previous batch went bankrupt, such as Cheng Linsheng, who lost 2000 million; some suffered heavy losses, such as Du Yuesheng, who was said to have lost 50.

If the gold market was less likely to be manipulated, even Kong Xiangxi and Miss Song's "Seven Star Company" suffered losses here in later generations. Perhaps Du Yuesheng would have wanted to manipulate it a long time ago.

Back in the office, Xia Gaoxiang and Ye Ximing from Ping An Bank were already at work and were carrying out preparatory work.

At present, Chen Guangliang still allows Ping An Bank and Changjiang Money House to operate independently because he hopes that Ping An Bank can have good development.

If Ping An Bank develops well in the future, Chen Guangliang could consider setting up branches in Chongqing and Hong Kong, shifting his focus to Hong Kong in 1937, and then depositing the funds in the United States.

In this way, the bank can 'turn danger into safety' and pass the customs smoothly.

During the meeting, Xia Gaoxiang asked, "Boss, to what extent do you want Ping An Bank to develop?"

This is a banking talent who studied in Japan and reached the project manager level at the Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank.

Chen Guangliang said frankly: "I don't have a grand goal, but I hope to take each step carefully and develop steadily."

After hearing this, Xia Gaoxiang asked, "Will Ping An Bank engage in speculative activities in the future?"

It turned out that they were waiting for Chen Guangliang here. After all, Chen Guangliang was not only an industrialist, but also a "big speculator" in Shanghai.

Chen Guangliang said calmly, "I can only say that you should avoid such activities as much as possible. If there is a good opportunity, I will have sufficient reasons to convince you, and I will not speculate recklessly. And you also understand that although the Nanjing government prohibits banks from doing certain things, banks in Shanghai are doing these things in disguise, such as investing in real estate."

He understood that these talents were also worried that Chen Guangliang would lose the bank in speculation.

Xia Gaoxiang nodded and said, "That's true. However, Assistant Manager Ye and I now believe that if the bank is established in the future, it may need a decent headquarters building. Since you are a real estate tycoon, I believe you understand its importance. A bank with a good headquarters building can increase its deposits by several percentage points. It is a symbol of credibility."

Chen Guangliang said cheerfully, "I'm looking for land. Don't worry, although my capital is only one million, I will increase it later."

Xia Gaoxiang smiled and said, "We are also because the boss is actively recruiting talents, so we hope to get some answers from you so that everyone will join us."

"Okay, don't worry, I respect talents very much."

Ping An Bank is still in the preparation stage and is currently recruiting staff. It is expected to officially open in November.

The headquarters can only rent a place from "Ji Tiao Financial Circle", but the branch has already been decided to be on the first floor of the Oriental Press Building.

As for the issue of building a headquarters, Chen Guangliang is already considering it and is preparing to invest one million dollars to build a landmark office building.

(End of this chapter)