Chapter 4 Do It Yourself?

  After arriving at what was touted as London's largest stock exchange, Yan Guangcai discovered that he had indeed underestimated the finance of this era.

  Over 10 million pounds, equivalent to over $90 million, over 270 million silver dollars, which is equivalent to nearly 2 billion RMB in 2007.

  In this era, with this amount of money, one can be considered a rich man in any country, but just now, in the largest securities exchange in London, not even a small splash was made.

  "After all, I'm just a poor man, am I?" Yan Guang said with a smile, holding a suitcase full of stocks and gazing at the bustling exchange, saying words that could make countless people envy, jealous and resentful.

  After buying all the newly issued rubber stocks with pounds equivalent to $900,000, Yan Guang only had more than $30,000 left for living expenses. More than $30,000, at the exchange rate of this era, is close to 100,000 silver dollars. As long as Yan Guang's life in the next year is not too luxurious, it is completely possible to make a living with this amount of money.

  Moreover, among the more than 100 inventions sold by Yan Guang in the United States, not all of them were directly sold. Some patents can also earn royalties. Relying on these patents alone, Yan Guang can still receive thousands of dollars in royalties every year, and this amount will only increase in the future.

  If he was content with a life of wealth, then just eating the interest would have been enough every year. Moreover, by 2009, his more than $900,000 could not be increased tenfold or twentyfold, but five to eight times is completely no problem.

  It's just...

  "Yellow people? How can there still be a yellow person here?"

  "Are you Japanese or Chinese?"

  "Chinese people, it's rare for Japanese people to be this tall."

  "Chinese? Then why doesn't he have a queue?"

  Feeling the strange gaze around him, Yan Guang put all the stocks into his briefcase and left the stock exchange.

  Yan Guang could clearly distinguish which of these gazes were disdainful, which were curious, and which were filled with malice, but what could be done about it?

  No matter how much more money, if one's own country is only a second-rate country, one's own nation is only a second-rate nation, and one's own skin color is only a second-rate skin color, then this rich man is also just a second-rate rich man...

  ——————————

  After returning to the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage similar to a taxi, the hotel owner standing at the front desk greeted Yan Guang.

  "How's it going? Still smooth sailing?" The hotel owner, who only had eyes for money, was not bad, and he had also heard from Cheng Guang that he came to London to buy rubber stocks, so when he saw him return, he casually asked.

  "It's going smoothly." Yan Guang said, taking off his specially made mask. "Next, we just have to wait."

  As a Briton, as a Londoner who takes pride in the thick fog of London, the hotel owner has always been somewhat dissatisfied with Yan Guang wearing a mask, but as someone most interested in money, he is now most interested in that rubber stock.

  "Can the rubber stock you bought really make a lot of money?" As the financial center and largest city in the world, running an inn business in London would not be bad at all, it's just that the returns are somewhat disappointing. So after hearing that rubber stocks can make a lot of money, the boss thought about whether to invest his idle capital as well, just like the stock investors of later generations.

  "At the beginning of the year, rubber on the market only cost two shillings, but now it has risen to three shillings. Can you make money from this?" Seeing the hotel owner's excited look, Yan Guang continued, "However, this kind of thing can only be played with, and if you've made enough profit, you should withdraw in time. Otherwise, one day when it collapses, there won't even be a chance to cry."

  This sentence has been exemplified by countless predecessors floating on the Huangpu River, and Yanguang feels that during the 10-year crash, the predecessors floating on the Thames will not be less than those on the Huangpu River...

  Yan Guang said these words only because the hotel owner was a good person, although his obsession with money was terrifying, but he didn't see any disdain in his eyes (the gaze of looking at gold coins), so he would say that.

  However, it seems that the hotel owner did not take Yan Guang's advice to heart. Enough said, Yan Guang could only pray that in two years, there would be no corpse of the boss floating on the Thames River.

  The stock is now in hand, and all that's left to do is wait for the money. In two days, he'll also be returning to China, but before then, there are still some things he needs to figure out.

  ——————————

  Yan Guang had just returned to his room when the hotel owner started inquiring about rubber stocks. Upon learning that rubber stocks were indeed very hot and some people had already made money from them, the hotel owner handed over the business to the shop assistants and immediately rushed to the stock exchange with all the spare cash he had on hand.

  At this time, Yan Guang was lying on his bed, thinking about his own affairs.

  It's almost half a year since I arrived in 1908. Due to the fact that there are many foreigners around, he has a deeper understanding of the status of Chinese people. That is, not every foreigner holds prejudices against Chinese people, but rather they are mostly just curious, just like in China in the 90s, when a foreigner suddenly appears, people around will surround him like a giant panda.

  But if foreigners were to regard the Chinese as their equals, that would be absolutely impossible. In America, Yan Guang had fought with his neighbors several times, and some of his American partners had mocked him behind his back, calling him a "Chinese monkey". On the ferry to London, he had even almost thrown a British passenger who was provoking him overboard, and had received a severe warning as a result.

  In an era where white supremacy prevails, people of color will never have the same opportunities as whites. Moreover, there are also differences in status among whites themselves, just like we all know from the Titanic. I still remember when I was a kid watching this movie, when the Titanic was about to sink, the first ones to board the lifeboats were women and children, but actually, this rule was established after the Titanic incident, at that time, the first-class and second-class passengers boarded the lifeboats first, followed by third-class.

  For example, the children in the movie, in the movie, the children and their families can board the ship first, but in that maritime disaster, there were 32 children in the first and second-class cabins, only one died, while there were 75 people in the third-class cabin, 55 people died, just because they were children of the third-class cabin. In the same race, it is even more so, let alone a rich man from a second-rate country?

  If one's own country cannot become strong, then having a lot of money is only being a second-rate rich person, and it is very likely to be reduced to a fat sheep in the eyes of some people. To change this situation, there is only one way, that is to make one's own country strong.

  But the question is, who can make China strong? The Tongmenghui led by Sun Yat-sen and others? Or the Beiyang controlled by Yuan Shikai? As for the Qing court controlled by the Manchu, it was directly ignored by Yan Guang, whether before or after crossing over. If he had to wear a queue for his whole life, it would be better to give him a gun and let him shoot himself.

  So now the question is, whether it was Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui, or Yuan Shikai's Beiyang, or...

  Do it yourself?