For Scrooge, 1859 passed so quickly that it passed in a blink of an eye. This year, Scrooge's career can be said to have made rapid progress. In particular, the three major products of McDonald's Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company have continuously brought wealth to Scrooge. Now, Scrooge can almost claim that there is not a single pharmacy in the United States, and indeed in all of Europe (with the possible exception of Eastern Europe), that does not carry Scrooge's drugs. And those doctors in Europe and America simply don't know how to treat diseases without Scrooge's sulfonamides and heroin.

And another drug of the company, "Dali Pill", has become a necessary medicine for home travel, murder, and arson. This is no-nonsense. In terms of "home travel", travelers use it to relieve the fatigue of travel, students use it to support themselves by staying up late studying, workers use it to support themselves to complete intensive labor, and southern slave owners use it to support themselves. Scrooge's company bought it for its slaves, writers for inspiration, and actors for their passions. It's even been said that girls in New York and other cities who work in some kind of old service industry use it to get more business done in a day.

As for "murder and arson", since Italy's war against Italy, the Italian army, which took "Dalibolus", has continuously defeated the Austrians with the assistance of the French army, and finally basically completed the unification of Italy (because France Human intervention, the pope's control over Rome was temporarily preserved). "Dali Pill" has become an indispensable strategic material in the armies of European countries. It can even be said now that without the "powerful pill" of McDonald Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company, those European countries would not be able to fight wars. Coupled with the hot sale of the McDonnell 1857 rifle in Europe, (now, Austrians and Prussians have become new users of this rifle. Only the shameless French, after seriously studying the McDonnell 1857 rifle, Actually launched a so-called "buck-loading rifle with completely independent intellectual property rights". Did he think he was Shen Hoi? He dared to do this! Even Shen Hoi bought a lot of orthodox guns in Komsomolsk-on-Amur After the SU-27, the J-11B, J-15, and J-16 gang of barbarians began to be copied. So Scrooge immediately stopped the supply of "Diliwan" to France, and then France sent people I came here to negotiate, um, I’m still wrangling.) So that Scrooge has a new nickname besides the nickname of "King of Medicine": "King of War".

With such a good business, Scrooge naturally had more and more money in his hands. By the end of 1859, the net profit he earned had exceeded seven million dollars. In other words, if Scrooge wanted to, he would have been able to replace the U.S. government and buy the entirety of Alaska. However, Scrooge didn't want to be a king, why buy that? Alaska is rich in minerals and resources, but to develop it at that time, it required more than a little money. Moreover, Alaska will not be in the hands of the Americans until 1867, and there are still several years to buffer it. The money in the hands of capitalists will never be put in the treasury. When there is more and more living money in their hands, Scrooge naturally has to think about what the money should be used for.

In the feudal era, when people made a fortune, they often had two ways of doing it. One was to sell it into the land, and the other was to convert it into gold and silver, then put it in jars, and dig a pit to bury it. Careful people are afraid of forgetting the location of the burial, and will put up a sign saying "There are no silver three hundred taels here".

But capitalists in capitalist society are not like this. They understand that capital can only show its value when it is constantly flowing, and the era they live in also provides various outlets for their funds. Therefore, it is not that capitalists do not have treasuries for storing gold and silver. For example, the famous old Grandet had a secret vault, but the gold and silver in those treasuries are always flowing. The capitalists can't do things like letting the potatoes rot in the warehouse like the Russian landowner Plyushkin.

Previously, as long as Scrooge had money, he would put him into reproduction and expand the scale of production. But by this time, he felt that the scale of production was already large enough, and continuing to expand the scale blindly would bring bad results instead. So what is this growing spare cash going to do?

To this question, Scrooge already had an answer, that is - China Construction Bank.

In the era of capitalism, all factors of production flow through the allocation of capital. Banks are the conduits and valves for capital flow. A large consortium may not be involved in arms, chemical industry, steel, transportation, or power, but it must not be involved in finance, and must not have its bank. Banks are the multipliers of capital power. A rich man who does not have a bank in his hand can only use his wealth, but a rich man who owns a bank can use various means such as credit to mobilize resources far greater than his own. Owned wealth capital.

On New Year's Day in 1860, a bank called "McDonald Venture Capital Bank" with a registered capital of $6 million appeared in Manhattan, New York. When the bank was established, the largest investor, Mr. Scrooge Macdonald, gave a speech on the direction of the bank's operations. In his speech, Scrooge briefly reviewed his family history (of course, some dark things will not be mentioned), and pointed out that unlike any era in human history, science, and technology have played an important role in this era. The development of history played a leading role, and then pirated the argument that "science and technology are the primary productive forces". Then, Scrooge said with compassion, considering that in this era, countless people have scientific talents and various whimsical ideas but cannot turn these things into real products due to a lack of start-up funds. , so I established such a bank to support these people's entrepreneurial journey.

Based on Scrooge's understanding of the development of science and technology in later generations, which ideas are feasible, which ideas are rich, and which ideas or technologies can bring large sums of money, and those things that look dazzling are Clicking on the wrong technology tree, in this era, it can be said that no one knows better than him. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, the tide of the second industrial revolution will sweep. This bank is preparing for this in advance.

...

When Scrooge was full of ambition to build his empire, little Loli Dorothea was writing letters to her brother at her home in the South.

"Dear brother:

Hello!

Papa officially announced the freedom of all our niggers a week ago. I don't know if he told you in his last letter. Freeing black slaves seems to be a good thing, but in fact, this thing is not going well. Many unexpected things happened.

Old Joel was the first black to learn that Papa had set them free. He was nearly mad with joy when Papa handed him the Freedmen's certificate. But it didn't take long for him to discover that freedom didn't do him any good. He ran outside for several days and wanted to rent a small house to live in. Because he wanted to try, as a free man, to live outside the manor. But who would rent a house to a black man, even though he was a free man? As a result, their family still lived in the original place and continued to help our family grow cotton. All freed slaves are like this, they still do the jobs they used to do. Well, Buck is still raising the cows, and Adele is still our cook. The only difference is probably that Dad now spends time counting their wages every month, and they also have to pay Dad monthly rent or something.

It would have been fine if that was all it was, but there was a rumor out of nowhere that Papa was going to be like those greedy Yankees, when the niggers got a little too old to work, he fired them and put them on the street. This rumor frightened the blacks, and some blacks even went to their father and asked him to take back their status as free citizens so that they could continue to be slaves. They pestered Dad until Dad assured them that they would continue to employ their children in the future. In addition, the blacks still stayed on the plantation most of the time, and few of them went to the streets like free man. Because on the street, they are often beaten by the police for no reason.

In addition, her father's behavior made her very isolated from the neighbors. They all spoke ill of her father behind her back. They said that her father was a traitor in the South and a lackey of that big villain Lincoln. Now, no one wants to come to our house to play anymore, not even Alice and Lucia. Even walking on the road and meeting them, they ignored me. But they ignore me, and I ignore them, who is afraid of whom!

Uncle Allen came here a few days ago. He came here to dissuade Dad before he made such a decision. But Dad didn't listen to him. But this time, he didn't come to see his father joke. He introduced several friends who had similar thoughts to his father. An uncle named Jackson brought me a large box of candies of various colors, which are rarely seen here. If it was before, I am afraid that it will not be long before Alice and Lucia will share all these candies, but now they will not come again. It was wonderful, and for the first time, I found out that there are still many benefits in not having them come.

Oh, by the way, Uncle Jackson said he knew Brother Scrooge too. He and Dad talked for a long time, and they seemed to be talking about the war or something. Uncle Jackson said that if Lincoln was elected, there would be war. Now I think, why is this Lincoln so annoying? Can't he stay in his own home obediently and don't go anywhere? After Uncle Jackson left, I saw my father's worried face, so I asked him, is it true that the northerners are going to war with us because we hold slaves? Is it like how my brother played war with Alice's brother when he was a child? I have known for a long time that fighting is not a fun thing, it is not the same as your game. But I say it anyway, to make Dad happy. Dad was amused by me, but he was still worried, and I knew that.

Yesterday afternoon, Dad practiced shooting in the manor. Well, you know, Dad doesn't like hunting. I remembered what he said to Uncle Jackson. He said, if there was a war, I would join the army and fight for the South. I think Dad might be serious.

The campaign was already raging, and posters of that bad guy Lincoln were even coming down South. But none of us would vote for him, so why didn't he get sick and die right away? (God forgive me, but I hope so.) Also, I wrote some letters to Brother Scrooge, but he never wrote back to me. This is so infuriating. In short, I have been very unhappy this week. I miss the time when you were still at home, brother.

sister Dorothea

yours truly

**year month day