Put All the Eggs in One Basket
On the surface, I told Albert it’d be fine even if he lost the gamble. In reality, Albert needed to have sufficient stock and money to be able to utilise the method. If he fails to get the majority of the shipyard’s shares in time, he’ll be forced to use his shares to the shipyard to fill the gap. If he gains the rights to the shipyard, he could do as I suggested. If he couldn’t, though, the price he sells the shares for wouldn’t be what it currently was. In other words, Albert would have to declare bankruptcy because he didn’t have enough cash to fill the gap.
The benefit of the method was that he could instantly make enough money. The issue that plagued all of the businessmen in the South was not having enough funds to continue purchasing shares. I had the impression that they didn’t consider the commoners whatsoever. Indeed, commoners look poor and incapable to support the business. They weren’t wrong. Ordinary folk couldn’t participate in business on that scale; however, their numbers were their advantage. If everyone could provide a few gold coins, it would amount to an enormous amount that businessmen wouldn’t be able to overlook.
That puts the most important question on the table, which was, “How do we get them to support themselves?” The method I suggested to Albert was one method; there was another method, which was to start company bonds. Using bonds would be quite risky. You had to repay bonds. It was a method for when you didn’t have anything tangible to hold it together. The method was overlooked far too often since ordinary folk wouldn’t have spare money to buy something intangible. Moreover, the wealthy businessmen and nobles wouldn’t senselessly hand money to those they weren’t familiar with. That meant that it was extremely unlikely to help him collect enough money using bonds. The other issue was that a business on the brink of bankruptcy would be a poorly operated business.
A business on the verge of bankruptcy’s bonds would be the equivalent of garbage. Anyone with two functioning brain cells wouldn’t buy those poor bonds. There were exceptions, having said that. While those bonds were rubbish, they were a high risk, high return token. Because their price would be awfully cheap, it would be possible to buy a large volume of them. Should the company be able to improve their situation and reverse their predicament, the company would repay them, thereby giving them an immense return.
There’s one more thing. If an enterprise wants to buy out another enterprise, they can also start those garbage bonds. Those bonds would act similarly to when I utilised prospected efforts as collateral for a loan. In other words, if I start offering such bonds, it would mean that if I successfully acquire the rights then I could repay adequately. To sum it up, if I can’t profit, your bonds will go down the drain.
Typically, nobody would be willing to buy something with so much risk. As they commonly say, you have to be mentally demented to buy garbage. Nonetheless, if a big wig in the investment world, a highly-influential figure or someone the public thought was credible were to step up, the bonds would no longer be considered trash.
Based on the circumstance at present, the reason Madam Melissa was in such a hurry to ask for my help was due to her business being in dire straits; she had to essentially be one step away from bankruptcy. That explains why she, the owner of a company, would take the same ship as commoners back to the South.
Women weren’t trusted in the business world. Instead, they were made light of. On top of that, the goods she sold could be easily replaced. As a result, Melissa’s business was in a slump. Her plan was to invest her only remaining funds in a factory in hopes of reversing her situation. The problem was that factories required investments. The investment to get started is enormous. Further, she wasn’t sure what she planned to do with the factory. My factory was only able to expand business thanks to Queen Sisi backing me and holding the exhibition. Had she not provided that level of support, my factory would only be balancing expenses and income at best.
For Melissa to say that she wanted to buy shares at this point and would split the earnings would earn the ridicule of others, not to mention being called an imbecile. The bonds she offered were actual garbage. On the contrary, if she went to the imperial capital now and declared, “The reason I’m offering these bonds is because the new count, Lin Dongqing, told me to come. He said that he would definitely be able to acquire it,” then things would be very different.
The statement would be completely brushed off in the South for the reason that the South didn’t care about new nobles, nor did they know what Lin Dongqing had done. In the imperial capital, on the other hand, what would everyone, from businessmen to banks, think if Melissa made the same announcement?
I was a new noble in the South, ordinary as they come noble. In fact, people wouldn’t even care if I was the minister of business. Who was I in the imperial capital, though? I was the imperial capital’s Demon King. The moment I was granted the mansion, people immediately began referring to it as the Demon King’s castle. I drove every businessman in the imperial capital to the brink of bankruptcy when I was the one who was facing bankruptcy. That single statement from Melissa would inform them that she wasn’t exaggerating but very, very, very much likely to be true.
If I could accomplish so many things considered impossible, what was there to say that I couldn’t succeed again? Plus, I could have Sisi put in a word for me. She didn’t need to say much; just one sentence was plenty. Also, Melissa could go to the North. If she went to the North and mentioned it in my territory, then even those in Bryne City could fathom the significance of the statement. There would be no doubt that anyone with money on hand would purchase the bonds.
To be clear, having Melissa go around everywhere announcing my involvement wasn’t my aim. The garbage bonds tactic was just one step. The key step was collateral-based loans. The only challenge was that I didn’t have a tangible product to pawn. As with any other identical situation, the only thing I could offer was my reputation. My plan wasn’t to multiply my wealth with the garbage bonds. What I relied on was leverage.
Under normal circumstances, banks and enterprises would supply funds. The exception was when the businessmen knew who they were talking to. They knew who was in front of them, therefore knew what to do, who to trust and who not to trust.
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