Chapter 67: Ponzi Scheme in the Han Dynasty
How to eliminate typhoid fever without causing rebellion?
No matter how much you treat it on your own, it will be a drop in the bucket.
Even the medical saint Zhang Zhongjing could only be a "sitting doctor" who tried his best to treat patients and then wrote a book "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" to influence future generations.
Monkey King is right, he can cure one, two, one hundred, or one thousand people, but this mythical man has a vast territory, and the number of people is more than tens of millions.
Then we must change our mindset.
Promote medicine to cope with the plague in the near future!
But that requires money, a lot of money. It costs money to run medical schools and educate doctors on a large scale. It costs money to run hospitals that treat patients. The supply of medicinal materials is also a problem, which also requires large-scale funds. In addition, it costs money to provide free medical care to farmers who cannot afford to treat their illnesses!
But how can I get enough money?
Su Che thought about this question for a long time.
Finally got a complete plan.
Plan 1: Write a book.
Su Che wrote Journey to the West, which was very successful and earned him his first pot of gold, providing him with initial start-up capital.
As for the stone monkey coming out earlier than expected, that was purely accidental. Who would have known that there was a stone monkey in this world and that he had even written about it in a book!
This was an episode, which was harmless. It just made the Emperor Shenwu notice his existence in advance and even saw through the truth of this world. This made Su Che feel a chill down his spine, but when he thought that he was not going to rebel, it didn't matter.
I'm not rebelling anymore, what can you do to me?
Plan 2: Do business.
Su Che was in the ice cube business and successfully doubled his capital, eventually making a fortune.
By the way, it also made the Chengjin Chamber of Commerce famous, and made many people remember this name.
Up to this point, it is considered very successful.
With the reputation of the Zhang family, he can make so much money without being targeted.
But if you continue to expand, do other businesses and make more money, that may not be the case.
Even though Su Che's father had been an official in the court and had many connections, those were past and could not protect his enormous wealth.
This path of doing business is no longer feasible.
As the business grows bigger, the speed of making money will become slower and slower, and you will then face all kinds of difficulties, which will be like walking on thin ice and making every step difficult.
Even if you are worth billions, others will still regard you as a fat sheep, and they will directly fatten you up and then slaughter you, and confiscate your property.
After all, in this world, among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants are at the lowest level! It is so easy for others to control you!
Therefore, it is impossible to do business. It is impossible to do business in this life!
Instead of working hard to make other people's money through business, how can it be faster to just take other people's capital?
So, Su Che started plan three: opening a money house!
This money house is different from other money houses. The interest it offers is real interest. As long as one person tastes the sweetness, word will spread to ten, ten to a hundred, and a hundred to ten thousand. Su Che's Chengjin Money House will be able to attract countless money!
This is a simple Ponzi scheme, also known as "taking money from one pocket to pay another" or "making money out of nothing"!
In short, it is to use the money of new investors to pay interest and short-term returns to old investors in order to create the illusion of making money and then defraud more investment.
This behavior is of course illegal.
But the problem is...
The laws of the Han Dynasty did not prohibit him from using a Ponzi scheme.
So strictly speaking, this is not illegal and it can be considered as doing business, just a more special kind of business.
In order to maintain the scam and spread it across the country, Su Che's interest rate was not exaggerated, only 3% to 50% a year. To reach the highest level of 50%, one must save at least 100 million yuan, which is equivalent to 10,000 kilograms of gold. Not many people have this financial resources, and they have to save it for three years. Even fewer people have the courage to save it, and this is only possible after a long time.
The expansion of the money house would certainly be extremely rapid, but Su Che planned to take it slow, slowly controlling his pace, and swallowing all the money of the Han Empire into his own stomach step by step. Then no matter what he did, he could do it smoothly.
In a word, there is no shortage of money!
Whether it is to improve the treatment of doctors, to research antibiotics, or to provide free medical care to the lower-class people, you can do it.
As for one day in the future, will Su Che's Chengjin Bank collapse?
Of course that’s for sure!
There is a 99.9% chance that something bad will happen!
This money house is like a bubble, being blown up bigger and bigger. Sooner or later it will burst, it is just a matter of time.
Su Che was not worried about the future, and he did not have much psychological burden. Anyway, he set a threshold, the minimum deposit was 10,000 yuan, so this money basically came from the scholar-official class, wealthy families, landlords and wealthy businessmen. In this sick society where land was annexed and the gap between the rich and the poor widened to the extreme, those lower-class farmers could not even get enough food to eat, so how could they have money to deposit in the bank?
In the last simulation, Su Che overthrew the lives of these wealthy families, landlords and businessmen, and also confiscated their homes!
This time, Mr. Su was a kind-hearted man. He did not take their lives but only asked for their money. They should be grateful!
In a word, these are the savings that Su Che earned through his own ability, so why should he think about paying them back?
…
Baofenglong Money House.
Zhao Junxian, the owner of the money shop, was talking to a distinguished guest, and his words were full of ridicule and mockery.
It all started when the distinguished guest asked, "What are those people beating gongs and drums over there doing?"
The shopkeeper Zhao Junxian laughed and said, "To be honest, there is a money shop over there. It opened today. It's called Chengjin Money House. It has no background, let alone credibility. Suddenly, a money shop was opened with gongs and drums. I almost laughed to death. How can such a money shop be opened casually?"
"Chengjin Money House, Chengjin, this name sounds familiar." The distinguished guest frowned and said.
"You guessed right. It was the Chengjin Chamber of Commerce that made a fortune by selling ice cubes. I don't know what the owner of the Chengjin Chamber of Commerce was thinking. He actually opened a bank. He really has too much money to spend!" Zhao Junxian said with a smile: "My brothers and I have been discussing when this Chengjin Bank will go bankrupt!"
"Why don't you do the ice business and come to sell money? Oh, the weather is cold now, and the ice business can't be done! So you want to change your career?"
The distinguished guest nodded and said, "That is indeed arrogant."
After chatting for a few more sentences, the distinguished guest said goodbye to Shopkeeper Zhao, went out the door and walked towards the direction of Chengjin Money House. Soon, he arrived at the outskirts of Chengjin Money House. He was surprised to find that there were circles of people gathered here, and it was so crowded that he could not see what was going on inside at all.
"Why is it so lively?" The distinguished guest was named Qi Xiangyun, a well-known landlord in the neighborhood. He owned thousands of acres of fertile land, tens of thousands of hired farmers, and countless cattle and sheep. The difference between him and those wealthy families was that no one in his family was an official in the court. Only a few of them served as Gongcaoshi and county lieutenant in the local county. They were typical local tyrants.
It was not easy to keep the family business without powerful connections, so during the holidays, Qi Xiangyun began to manage various relationships and give out gifts. At the same time, he also invested part of his family's money in a bank to facilitate his business.
Qi Xiangyun just heard from Zhao Junxian that this Chengjin Money House did not have any background, but why was it so lively on the opening day?
It's very strange.
He frowned and listened for a long time before he understood why this money house was so bustling!
It turned out that if you deposit money in Chengjin Bank, you don't need to pay for safekeeping, and you will get interest. The more you deposit, the higher the interest. The highest is more than 100 million yuan. If you deposit for three years, you will get 50% interest every year! That means 250 million yuan in three years!
Qi Xiangyun's eyes widened after hearing these words, and he could hardly believe his ears. How could there be such a bank in the world?
This is too outrageous!
This must be a liar!
