Chapter 1143: Scram, You Yao the Skinflint!

"My lord, my lord, what are you doing? This humble one—this humble one hasn't done anything wrong, has he? The Chongqing Stock House makes money every month, quite a lot of money, doesn't it? Th-this, this silver note is, is from the Retired—the Retired—?"

In Shanghai, on Jinling Street, in a corner of the imposing Maritime Bank building, inside the manager's office of the newly opened Chongqing Stock House, a scene that delighted everyone was unfolding.

Yao Daqiao, the most hated stock broker in the Shanghai stock brokerage trade—known as "the number one dog south of the heavens, Yao the Skinflint of the Shanghai Bund"—was about to be driven out of the Chongqing Stock House he had founded with his own hands.

Yao the Skinflint was certainly no good man; otherwise he wouldn't have earned such an ugly nickname as "Yao the Skinflint." But the nickname hadn't originated in Shanghai stock circles—it went back to when Yao Daqiao had entered the service of the Commandery Prince of Rinan, Zhu Cizhao, as an imperial merchant.

At that time, Yao Daqiao had made a little money running a rice business in Nakhon Si Thammarat in Siam, and, restless as ever, he wanted to find an opportunity for bigger profits. So he once again ventured out to sea, followed the Zheng family's merchant ships to the Jinnan Army, and sought out his fellow Hubei native Peng Ziqin, who held a post in the Jinnan Army, hoping to do a timber business there. Peng Ziqin, who was just then preparing to jump ship and take an official post in the Jinghai Army, brought his fellow provincial along with him to the Jinghai Army, where they entered the service of the Commandery Prince of Rinan.

And the Rinan Commandery Prince's household had been running businesses at a loss all along—the Rinan princely household was poor, holding only a bit of land that couldn't be rented out for any good price, so of course they had to find ways to increase their income. Thus, after arriving in the Champa region, Qiu Mengmei began doing business, opening quite a few shipping houses, ironworks, rice shops, inns, restaurants, timber yards, and the like.

But no matter what kind of business it was, every one she opened lost money, until Qiu Mengmei sighed and fretted all day long, nearly worried to death.

It was at just this moment that the professional profiteer Yao Daqiao was recommended to Qiu Mengmei by Peng Ziqin.

Qiu Mengmei, at her wits' end over the losses, had no choice but to let Yao Daqiao take over the princely household's whole sprawling array of businesses. And once Yao Daqiao took over, the "old retainers" who had been running the household's businesses under Qiu Mengmei all met with misfortune—all sorts of assessments were piled on them, and anyone who failed to meet them got off lightly with a scolding and a docking of pay; the serious cases were dismissed outright!

These "old retainers" had all followed along all the way from Hubei, and many of them had protected Zhu Cizhao and Qiu Mengmei during their "thousand-li strategic advance"—they had rendered meritorious service. For Yao Daqiao to use them as his first targets, he really must have had a death wish.

If not for that shortsighted woman Qiu Mengmei backing him, he would have been hacked to death long ago.

And there was even more to make people hate him!

After Yao Daqiao took over the princely household's businesses, he cut away the whole pile of money-losing operations—the shipping house, the ironworks, the rice shop, the inn, the restaurant—leaving only the timber trade, and then he opened an ivory business. The timber house supplied the shipyards of Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing, providing good stock exclusively to the major yards.

And the ivory house pulled in the Jinnan Army along with the Zheng lord and the Nguyen lord to set up a monopoly together.

With that approach, he certainly made money—but the problem was, what about all those old retainers who had originally managed the shipbuilding, the ironworking, the rice shop, the inn, and the restaurant?

He sacked every one of them!

Although the Rinan princely household would allocate land to these men, they had previously enjoyed rich food and fine drink in the princess consort's service, and now they were left with only three or five hundred mu of poor fields—how could they accept that?

There was no one high or low who did not hate Yao Daqiao, and the nickname "Yao the Skinflint" caught on. The people going to Qiu Mengmei to lodge complaints nearly broke down the gates of the princely residence.

But Qiu Mengmei was truly muddleheaded—such a scoundrel, and she was fooled by him for several years, only driving Yao the Skinflint out when the Rinan princely household was transferred to Nakhon Si Thammarat. She had no choice but to drive him out—after the move, she needed the old retainers to lead their sons and nephews out to do some killing again.

Yao the Skinflint, leaving Champa in disgrace, did not return to his old home in Hubei. Instead he went to the Shanghai Bund, used the money he had earned in Champa to buy land, put up several buildings for rent, and took the remaining tens of thousands of taels of silver to the securities market to invest.

With stocks and bonds, he was a quick study—the first time, in Wuhan, he had lost everything but half a street; this time in Shanghai, he made quite a lot.

While making money in stocks, Yao Daqiao also discovered the trade of stock broker, so he wrote to Qiu Mengmei and secured the position of stock broker to the Nakhon Si Thammarat princely household, beginning to invest and manage money for the household. And of course it was profitable—the stocks he picked rose every day, and with the Ming stock market having no short-selling, it was hard to lose money even if you tried!

Later still, when the Prince of Nakhon Si Thammarat went to the capital to offer birthday congratulations to the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, Yao Daqiao was ordered to receive him, and not only became well acquainted with the prince, but also, taking advantage of the United Provinces stock issue, made a large sum for the prince, and moreover established a connection with the prince's brother, the Prince of Chongqing, Zhu Cihuan.

And the Commandery Prince of Nakhon Si Thammarat and the Commandery Prince of Chongqing had a certain mutual sympathy—the two were brothers in misfortune, both having been captives under Li Zicheng, having suffered greatly and nearly lost their lives. Though both later managed to escape, neither was valued by their elder brother Zhu Cilang. It was only that the Commandery Prince of Nakhon Si Thammarat had good luck, marrying the husband-blessing Qiu Mengmei, and so managed to do rather well.

So the Commandery Prince of Nakhon Si Thammarat was very sympathetic toward his younger brother, the Commandery Prince of Chongqing, Zhu Cihuan—though of course he also thought Zhu Cihuan was useless, worse than himself. Therefore, before leaving Shanghai to go south to Nakhon Si Thammarat, he had especially instructed Yao Daqiao to be sure to look after Zhu Cihuan, so that this rather useless brother might also earn a little.

And Yao Daqiao, Yao the Skinflint, did not dare disobey the Commandery Prince of Nakhon Si Thammarat's words, so after going into partnership with Zhu Cihuan to open the Chongqing House, he brought out his skinflint's drive once again. First he poached a batch of junior brokers from the major houses, sending them everywhere to drum up clients and expand the market, and he also carefully selected seven or eight stocks of quite good quality but small float and "made a market" in them.

Because Yao Daqiao's stock-picking was of a high standard, and because his Chongqing House was especially good at attracting clients and charged relatively low commissions, he stole a great deal of business from his competitors.

And so the nickname "Yao the Skinflint" was heard once again in Shanghai.

Of course, the business of "splitting shares and making a market," though very profitable, carried great risk!

Because a stock house cannot sell short—it must first hold shares before it can split them and make a market. So a stock house must first purchase shares, and the shares it splits out are necessarily fewer than the shares it purchased; therefore, if these shares used for splitting fall sharply, the stock house will bear the loss.

In addition, because member houses of the exchange (only member houses may split shares) are all required to deposit 100,000 taels as a guarantee in designated accounts at two banks.

So some stock houses with insufficient capital strength, yet wanting to earn more profit from split-share trading, will use borrowed funds to expand their holdings. The more varieties and quantity of shares they hold, the larger their split-share business naturally becomes—and with the stock market rising every day, the shares they hold also rise every day!

And the Chongqing House under Yao the Skinflint's management made a fortune in this great trend of ever-rising stocks.

Just as Yao Daqiao was preparing to press on and achieve new glories, his partner, the Prince of Chongqing, Zhu Cihuan, suddenly produced a stack of silver notes and proposed to buy out his shares in the stock house. This was driving him out!

Yao the Skinflint was unwilling at first—he was happily making money, so why would he agree to withdraw? But when he saw the seal on the silver notes, half his soul fled in fright—the seal bore just four characters: Retired Emperor.

This was the Retired Emperor's will!

This time Yao the Skinflint was truly stunned.

"M-my lord, you—you—" Yao the Skinflint was already covered in sweat on his forehead. Though he was happily making money, he had, after all, suffered a great loss on princely bonds before, so he did not believe in the myth that stocks rise forever!

He merely felt they could keep rising for a while longer. The thought of leaving in time was there—he just couldn't bear to go.

But what did this prince in front of him understand?

And that bunch of junior brokers below were no good either. To earn more commission, they egged him on all day long to expand the quantity and variety of his holdings. They even frequently brought in clients of insufficient means, hoping the stock house would lend them money to buy shares. Because of these matters, Yao Daqiao lost his temper every few days and had driven off quite a few brokers who were too unscrupulous.

"Say no more," said the Prince of Chongqing, looking at Yao Daqiao with some embarrassment, but not daring to disobey his father's words, so he smiled and said, "Hurry up and settle the accounts. Whatever your shareholding is worth, We will not short you a single cash! The Retired Emperor gave Us 250,000 taels—all his old-age money—surely enough to buy out your shares?"

This was truly deadly. Yao Daqiao was so frightened he nearly fainted. The Retired Emperor's old-age money! If this muddleheaded prince lost it all, would they come after him?

No—he had to leave at once! Go to the New World. And he would have to go into hiding, never to return for the rest of his life!

Silver can never all be earned, but a man has only one life!

(End of Chapter)