Chapter 15 Chapter 15 San Francisco Exchange

The San Francisco Exchange signifies, and may even be said to represent, enormous activity in business and industry.It is one of the most active and newest exchanges in the world.As a natural result of the geographical location of the capital of California, people from all over live here, which is one of the most notable characteristics of San Francisco.Beneath its high gates of handsome red marble, tall blond Sassons rub shoulders with light, dusky, brown-haired Celts; Negroes and Finns and Indians often encounter; Polynesians would be amazed to see Greenlanders; squint-eyed, dreadlocked Chinese conspire with their old enemy.People speak different languages ​​and dialects, just like being in the contemporary world.

On October 12, the world's largest exchange opened normally without any special circumstances.At nearly eleven o'clock, the main brokers and business agents greeted each other happily or seriously according to their personalities, shook hands with each other, and walked to the bar. After eating and drinking, they devoted themselves to the day. in the transaction.One by one, they opened the small door of the numbered mailbox of their respective customers.These mailboxes are placed in the lobby.They took out a stack of letters from the letterbox and scanned them casually. After a while, the stock market quotations of the day came out, and the busy crowd suddenly became bustling.More and more people gathered, and the shouting sounded softly.

As a result, telegrams began to arrive from all corners of the world.Every hour there was a long strip of blue paper, read aloud amidst the din of voices, and affixed by the Exchange guards to the telegraph column on the north wall. The crowd grew restless.Agents ran in and out, hurried to the telegraph office, and brought back the telegrams.People open their notebooks and write and change and delete.Everyone seemed to be possessed.About one o'clock, something mysterious seemed to circulate among the restless crowd. One of the partners in "Bank of the West" has just brought amazing, unexpected, incredible news.The news spread like a bolt of lightning:

"What a joke! . . . This is a conspiracy! How can you believe such a lie?" some people said. "Uh! Uh!" said others, "where there is no wind, there is no wave!" "Could it be possible to fall into this field?" "Everyone has bad luck!" "But, sir, that's more than eighty million dollars in real estate and machinery alone!" cried one. "Not counting iron and steel, half-finished and finished!" echoed another. "Hmph! Did I already tell you! Schultz has a total of 90 million US dollars. If anyone needs to sell short, I will handle it!"

"But then why refuse to pay?" "I don't need to explain at all! . . . I don't believe it!" "It's as if this kind of thing doesn't happen to rich and powerful people every day!" "Stalstad is not a family, but a city!" "Anyway, it's impossible for this matter to end like this! It is inevitable to set up a company to deal with his affairs!" "But why the hell didn't Schultz start a company before anyone protested?" "Exactly, sir, this is so absurd that it cannot withstand refutation! This is purely a rumor, and it may be the atmosphere that Nash deliberately released. He desperately wants to raise the price of steel!"

"It's not a rumor at all! Schultz is not only bankrupt, but also on the run." "nonsense!" "Really ran away, sir. The telegram has just been posted, proving it!" The crowd was rushing towards the telegraph board like a raging tide.The last long strip of blue paper reads: New York, ten on the twelfth.The central bank, the Stahlstad factory, stopped paying.Known liabilities: $47 million. Schultz is missing. This time, no matter how shocking the news was, it was undoubted, so various speculations appeared. At two o'clock, the list of other bankrupt manufacturers due to Mr. Schulz's bankruptcy began to circulate.The heaviest losers were the Mining Bank of New York; Westley & Sons of Chicago, seven million dollars; Buffalo, Millwange, five million; San Francisco Industrial Bank, one and a half million; The above manufacturers have less losses involved.

On the other hand, without waiting for the news, the inevitable consequences of this incident spread like a wild horse. The San Francisco Exchange, according to people in the industry, was still dull in the morning, but at two o'clock in the afternoon, the situation was very different!fluctuation!Disk up!Crazy speculation! Steel prices are rising, rising every minute!Coal prices are bullish!The stocks of the smelters all over the United States are going up!Various types of finished products of the iron smelting industry are on the rise!Land prices in France City are also rising!Since the declaration of war, land prices in France City have plummeted, no one cares about them, and suddenly they are asking for one hundred and eighty dollars an acre!

Since that night, there have been huge crowds of people in front of the newsstand.But whether it is the Herald, the Tribune, the Alta, the Vanguard, or the Echo and the Globe, despite the little information they can collect The type came out, but still so few that there was almost nothing. It is known that, on September 25th, a money order for eight million dollars payable by Mr. Schultz to the Jackson Company of Buffalo was sent to Steel King's Schilling & Strauss Company in New York. However, the bank found that the deposit in the account of its client Mr. Schultz was not enough to pay the amount, so it immediately sent a report to inform Schultz, but the latter did not get a reply.So the bank immediately checked the accounts, but was surprised to find that it had not received any letters or bills from Stalstad for thirteen days.From then on, the bank received more and more bills and money orders to pay Mr. Schultz's account every day, but they were all marked "no deposit" and returned.

For four days, letters of inquiry, telegrams of concern, and angry questions were sent to the bank and to Stalstadt. Finally, a definite answer came. "Mr. Schultz has been missing since September 16," the telegram said. "The truth of the matter is unknown. He has left no instructions, and the cash box in the district is empty." Since then, it is no longer possible to hide the truth.Some major creditors got scared and took it to commercial courts.In a few hours, the news of the bankruptcy of these creditors spread like lightning, and even the small creditors affected by them went bankrupt.At noon on October 13th, the known debt amount had reached $47 million.All indications were that the total amount of debts would reach sixty million.

This is what everyone knows and what the newspapers report more or less consistently.No doubt the papers were announcing important new reports for the next day. Indeed, the newspapers immediately sent their reporters to Stahlstadt from the very beginning. Since the night of October 14, a veritable army of journalists has surrounded Steel City, notebooks open and pencils waving.But the army was like a wave crashing against the outer wall of Stahlstad, smashing its bones and bleeding its heads.The doorman always guarded the gate and refused to let in. No matter what the reporters said, it was useless, and the doorman was always unwilling to accommodate.

However, they still found out that the workers didn't know anything, and everything in the factory continued as usual.The foremen only announced on the first day that there was no more money in the treasuries of the work areas.Headquarters did not issue instructions.As a result, work will be closed starting Saturday unless otherwise notified. All this, far from clarifying the situation, made it more complicated.No one doubted that Mr. Schultz had been missing for nearly a month.However, the reason for the disappearance and its consequences are unknown.But the uneasy people felt vaguely that this mysterious figure would appear at any time. In the first few days, the factory was still producing as usual, and the progress was as usual.Everyone is doing their own work in their respective positions.The money bank in all work areas pays wages every Saturday.Before that, the general treasury was still in charge of handling all the money transactions in Steel City.But Stahlstad's power was so centralized that Mr. Schulz was in charge of everything, so his disappearance immediately brought work to a standstill.Thus, from September 17, when the Iron Magnate last issued his order, to October 12, when the news of the suspension of payments came through like a bolt from the blue, there were thousands of letters—of which Most of them must have included huge money orders - sent by the Stalstad post office to the headquarters mailbox and, no doubt, to Mr. Schulz's office.However, only he has the right to unpack, and after approval with a red pencil, it will be handed over to the general treasury. It never occurred to the highest-ranking employees in the factory to act beyond their authority.Although they have absolute power over their subordinates.But in the presence of Mr. Schulz, and not even in the presence of the latter, they are all powerless, submissive, submissive tools.Therefore, they just perform their duties, waiting and watching the development of the situation. In the end, things went bad.This situation of monopolizing power by one person continued until the important manufacturers and companies concerned suddenly realized that the situation was not good, sent letters and calls, demanded money, protested, and finally went to court.It will take some time to get to this point.It is not easy for everyone to decide to suspect that such a prosperous and prosperous manufacturer is just a giant with mud feet.However, the facts are now clear: Mr. Schultz has absconded in debt. That's all the reporters could hear.Even the most famous of big journalists, Michael John Brendbass, was not much better than their peers this time around.Michael John has made a name for himself by successfully extracting his political opinions from one of the most tight-lipped mouths of the century.Brendbass was originally an ordinary reporter for the "Le Monde", and became a tireless reporter with a great reputation because he was the first to report the important news of the surrender to the Tsar.They also have to admit that the "Tribune" and "Le Monde" have not yet been able to tell everyone the truth about Schultz's bankruptcy. What makes this ominous entrepreneur such an almost unique event is the grotesque situation of Staalstad, a separate, isolated city that does not allow formal, legal investigations.It is true that Mr. Schultz's signature is no longer valid in New York, but his creditors have every reason to believe that the assets of his factory are sufficient to cover their debts to a certain extent.But to which court do you have to go to get a mortgage or a seizure?Stalstad is still a special territory, and its ownership has not yet been determined. It is completely under the jurisdiction of Mr. Schultz.If only he had appointed a representative, a management committee, an agent, so much the better!But there was nothing, not even a court, not even a judicial committee!He alone is King, Chancellor, Commander-in-Chief, Notary, Lawyer, Commercial Court of Steel City.He personally realized the ideal of centralization.So when he disappeared, all went to nothing, and the whole terrible edifice fell with it like a castle made of paper. In other cases, the creditors could form a federation to succeed Mr. Schultz, seize his assets, and seize his power of conduct.From all appearances, they could think that perhaps with a little money and a little reorganization, the factory could be run. However, all this is impossible.There is no legal formality for receivership.A kind of mental barrier bound everyone's hands and feet. To be honest, even if they could cross the tall walls of Steel City, they would never want to cross this mental barrier.Thus, the hapless creditor sees a share of the property that can be paid off, but cannot get it. All they can do is to get together for a meeting to study, unanimously agree to make a statement to Congress, ask Congress to deal with the matter, safeguard the interests of its citizens, and announce that Starstad will be merged into the US territory, thus making this behemoth put aside bound by the common laws of civilization.Several members of Congress were themselves implicated in the matter, so the demand was in many ways seductive to the American character.So, there is every reason to think that it will come to a successful conclusion.Regrettably, Congress is in recess, and I am afraid it will take a long time to bring this matter to Congress. While awaiting submission to Congress, the Stahlstad stopped, and one by one the blast furnaces went out. As a result, the 10,000 households who depended on factories fell into deep despair.What to do?Keep working and expect to get paid six months later, or perhaps not paid at all?No one is in favor of continuing to work.Counting on getting paid six months later, or maybe not getting paid at all?No one is in favor of continuing to work.Besides, what are you doing?Orders, like everything else, are gone.All of Mr. Schultz's clients are waiting for a legal resolution before resuming contact.The heads, engineers, and foremen of each work area did not receive orders and could not direct the workers to work. We hold many conferences and small meetings, study and discuss, but there is no definite plan, because no plan is feasible.With unemployment comes poverty, hopelessness, and crime.There is no one in the workshop, but the tavern is full.The chimneys in the factory stopped smoking one by one, but the taverns in the nearby villages opened up one after another. The nicest and most thoughtful of the workers, those who had saved up a little money in anticipation of a difficult day, packed arms and luggage, tools, housewives' favorite bedding, and the The chubby-faced children attracted by the vicissitudes of the world fled in all directions. Soon after, some of them found new factories in the east, some in the south, and some in the north, and began to work in iron smelting and foundry again. Come on... However, there are very few people who can realize this dream, and most of them still stay where they are, suffering from poverty!Their eyes are sunken, their hearts are bleeding, and they are helpless! They had no choice but to sell their rags to the gang of wolves in human skins who would come to take advantage of the fire whenever a disaster happened. Wages, no jobs, no hope, and the prospect of misery unfolding like a severe winter!

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