Reborn Tycoon Rise

The general trend of history is often not so easy to change.

Although Xu Zhi plans to invest 20 billion Hong Kong dollars to revitalize Hong Kong's currently sluggish economy, the root cause of the entire crisis is the future crisis caused by Sino-British negotiations and the bursting of the real estate market bubble. If the fundamental problem is not solved, the crisis will not Inflection points will appear at random.

From 1974 to 1978, the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar against the US dollar had been stable at 4.5:1. After 1979, the Hong Kong dollar began to depreciate slowly. By 1982, the Hong Kong dollar against the US dollar had become 5.2:1, but the entire depreciation process was very slow. , even those doing foreign trade business do not feel this change obviously.

It was not until September 1982 that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited China to negotiate with the mainland on the Hong Kong issue. This political incident became the trigger for accelerating the depreciation of the Hong Kong dollar.

Starting from September 1982, a large number of wealthy people in Hong Kong were preparing to immigrate and leave. Naturally, these people no longer held Hong Kong dollars, so they went to banks to exchange Hong Kong dollars for US dollars.

This behavior led to a rapid decrease in the Hong Kong government's foreign exchange reserves. Subsequently, the Hong Kong government introduced a new law that large-scale exchanges of U.S. dollars must be justified and approved by the Hong Kong government.

This regulation shows that the problem has been solved at the top, but there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. Countless scalpers have begun to take advantage of loopholes in the law and arrange for ordinary people to go to banks to exchange the maximum amount of foreign exchange allowed by the law. They then accumulate a small amount and sell it to the needy at a high price. Immigrant people.

Although the Hong Kong government is also aware of this, in order to maintain Hong Kong's status as an internationally recognized "free trade zone", it is only cracking down on scalpers, but the effect is not good, so foreign exchange reserves continue to decline.

In the end, a large amount of Hong Kong dollars were exchanged and the exchange rate dropped sharply, which in turn caused huge losses to ordinary people in Hong Kong. So these people joined in and started to take advantage of the Hong Kong government.

HSBC is responsible for the internal foreign exchange exchange in Hong Kong, but HSBC is also half the central bank. This type of business will also be contracted to other banks. Foreign exchange decreased sharply, which caused a shortage of US dollars in some banks. In the end, several small banks announced their suspension Exchange USD.

This situation is actually the same as the previous run crisis on the Hong Kong dollar. One was the Hong Kong dollar and the other was the US dollar.

A small bank announced that it would suspend the exchange of U.S. dollars. People were worried that other banks would follow suit and announce the same policy, so they went to other banks more actively to exchange U.S. dollars. This caused banks that were not nervous about foreign exchange exchange to immediately become nervous. .

Finally, due to the run, these banks also stopped exchanging U.S. dollars.

For those who went to exchange dollars, their initial fears were realized by themselves.

Panic will spread quickly. On the black market, the U.S. dollar is becoming more and more valuable and the Hong Kong dollar is depreciating. As a result, some stores have begun to mark prices in U.S. dollars and refuse to accept Hong Kong dollars. There has also been a rush to buy goods in the market. People are worried The Hong Kong dollars in hand would become worthless, so many large supermarkets were almost emptied out.

The Hong Kong dollar crisis has officially broken out. This is the most serious crisis of confidence in the Hong Kong dollar since the opening of Hong Kong as a port in 1863.

Although ordinary banks in Hong Kong have stopped converting U.S. dollars, HSBC, as the quasi-central bank in Hong Kong, cannot stop its exchange business like other private banks. The redemption window is still there, but the speed has been deliberately controlled.

As a result, long queues formed at the entrance of various banks in Hong Kong. Everyone was withdrawing their deposits, and then went to the HSBC branch to exchange them for US dollars.

In fact, only a few of these people are really worried about the future of Hong Kong. What they worry about is that when a large number of people sell Hong Kong dollars, the Hong Kong dollars in their hands will also depreciate. In order to prevent themselves from possible losses, they also join the run. team.

Once again, these people produced the results they feared.

Panic was still spreading, and the Hong Kong government immediately issued an order: It is a serious violation of laws for all shops in Hong Kong to refuse payment in Hong Kong dollars.

Several shop owners who had committed crimes were arrested, and the liquidity of the Hong Kong dollar was temporarily accepted by the public. However, what made the Hong Kong government dumbfounded was that barter had appeared in some places. In response to this kind of thing, the Hong Kong government There is nothing we can do. After all, this is not illegal, and the Hong Kong government cannot introduce laws to prevent this kind of thing. Otherwise, it will become a laughing stock in the global legal community.

Even though the British Hong Kong government wanted to disrupt Hong Kong's economy to put pressure on the mainland, this time it obviously went too far. After the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate plummeted, the mainland government immediately condemned the Hong Kong government and Downing Street for their inaction.

And Downing Street really doesn't dare to let Hong Kong's economy collapse. The first reason is that Hong Kong is still under British rule. Once such a problem occurs, it will seriously affect Britain's international image. The second is that the British mainland also has a large amount of investment in Hong Kong, and these people also have very great influence. The third is that economic activities within the Commonwealth are closer. If there is a problem in Xiangjiang, it is likely to affect the British mainland.

As a result, Hong Kong Governor Youde convened several financial meetings in succession and invited the heads of many large banks such as HSBC Shenbi and Standard Chartered Sides to discuss solutions overnight. Even the British Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs arrived in Hong Kong to discuss the matter.

However, such matters involving the exchange rate will obviously not be decided immediately, and the first task at present is to suppress this trend of runs.

Hong Kong Governor's Office:

"Xu Sheng, please come inside." An official from the Hong Kong Governor's Office led Xu Zhi into the Hong Kong Governor's office.

As the richest man in Hong Kong, with billions of dollars in hand, this status will naturally attract the attention of Hong Kong Governor Youde. Especially during this period, the Hong Kong government urgently needs a large amount of US dollar foreign exchange to solve the turmoil in Hong Kong.

"Hello, Sir Yoder." Xu Zhi smiled politely.

Youde also stood up and said, "Xu Sheng, please sit down."

The two sat down, and Youde continued: "Xu Sheng, I would like to thank your Watsons supermarket this time. Otherwise, if even daily necessities are sold out, the consequences will be disastrous."

"Nothing. This is Watson's obligation. Sir Youde, please rest assured that Watson has mobilized a large amount of food and daily necessities from the mainland and overseas. Hutchison Whampoa's terminals are also in full operation. Food will be delivered as a priority and we will do our best to ensure the daily life of the people. If necessary, no matter how much some people stock up, they will not empty out our supermarkets." Xu Zhi nodded.

After Watsons annexed Wellcome Supermarket, it almost monopolized the entire supermarket in Hong Kong. This run crisis not only affected the US dollar, but also supermarkets. However, Xu Zhi was prepared and mobilized a large amount of goods from the mainland. Some people stocked up The more, the more Watsons earns.

Yoder nodded and said, "Okay, that makes me feel more at ease."

Xu Zhi asked directly: "Sir Youde, I wonder if there is anything else besides the supermarket?"

Youde asked: "Xu Sheng, half a month ago, you said at the Hutchison Building press conference that Hutchison Whampoa would cash out more than 1.1 billion US dollars of GE stock. Is it true?"

"Of course." Xu Zhi replied affirmatively.

"Then I don't know when I can be transferred back to Xiangjiang?" Youde asked eagerly.

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "Sir Youde, with the current situation in Xiangjiang, it is difficult for me to make up my mind to transfer this fund back."

Youde asked: "Does Xu Sheng have no confidence in Hong Kong? Isn't it possible that the Hong Kong government can't solve the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate issue this time?"

"I don't know if it can be solved, but the current situation is that the price of the Hong Kong dollar is constantly falling. From an economic point of view, the exchange risk is too great at this time, because no one knows what will happen in the future." Xu Zhi said calmly said.

Youde frowned and said: "Xu Sheng, as the richest man in Xiangjiang, you should cooperate with the government at this time to solve the current difficulties in Xiangjiang. Otherwise, if things happen to the point of irreversibility, you persistent losers will be the ones who suffer the most. A local rich man with a huge property, isn’t he?”