50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 568 1 for 5
After arranging the five new gold mines, Sun Zhiwei did not forget to give instructions to Huang Hongxuan, who was about to go to South Africa to take over the mines.

He was instructed to procure a batch of supplies and then hire a cargo plane to deliver them to Kinshasa, Zaire, as part of the support he had promised to the medical team aiding Africa.

Once the transport plane arrives at Kinshasa Airport, Captain Xiao of the medical team will naturally come to take over the supplies.

Sun Zhiwei's procurement of supplies this time clearly exceeded the medical team's usage, and his purpose is self-evident.

They are now on someone else's territory. Although they are supposedly there to help the other side, human greed cannot be easily stopped.

Local officials knew that with such a large amount of supplies they had acquired, some people would definitely try to take advantage of them, so the surplus supplies were used here.

As for whether Captain Xiao was stubborn enough to ignore such extortion, he wasn't too worried.

Because he was selected by the country to be the leader of the medical team, regardless of his medical skills, he is at least not bad in terms of emotional intelligence.

He should understand the principle of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." Using some surplus resources to gain more convenience in doing things is the correct way for a qualified captain to handle this kind of situation.

Sun Zhiwei had no interest in figuring out exactly what the other party would do.

Because this was a spur-of-the-moment decision, he donated supplies and funds under a pseudonym, and it will be difficult for him to have any further contact with the recipient.

After the agreement was signed, Sun Zhiwei did not rush to call Tong Jiajia back, but waited quietly for more than half a month.

One of the five gold mines was located in California. Ryan Clark encountered no obstacles when he went to take over the mine, and it only took him three days.

The transfer of the diamond mine to De Beers was completed without much effort, within a week.

The other four gold mines, however, were not so easy to hand over, since they were located in two different places.

On November 5th, he finally received a call from Huang Hongxuan, informing him that all the gold mines had been handed over.

Starting next month, Sun Zhiwei's mining company's total gold production will increase several times, which will strongly boost the capital accumulation of Sun Zhiwei's business.

Gold is a natural form of currency. Although it is not money, it is often more useful than money.

In most transactions, if the recipient had to choose between cash or gold, no one would choose gold, even if it meant receiving less.

If gold is in the hands of a bank, it plays an even greater role. 1 yuan worth of gold can be manipulated by a bank to make 10 yuan worth of gold.

He had once heard a joke about a bank branch that was allocated a piece of gold from the head office, and then they sold the gold to a customer.

After the customer completed the payment and saw the gold, the branch's account manager persuaded the customer to continue storing the gold in the branch's vault, guaranteeing that it could be withdrawn at any time.

After the client agreed, the account manager sold the gold to a second, a third, and an Nth person.

And each time, the account manager would persuade the customer who had already paid to continue keeping the gold in the bank.

Three years later, the gold was still in the branch's vault, but the branch had already sold hundreds of gold certificates at its gold price.

Anyone with eyes can see that there's a problem here, but many people can't quite put their finger on what it is.

In theory, even if a bank run occurs, banks are not worried because gold withdrawals require advance reservations. This reservation period is the time the bank allocates for raising funds, since banks can transfer funds to each other.

Coincidentally, Sun Zhiwei now owns his own bank, holding more than 9% of Cathay Bank's shares. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this is his private bank.

The other shareholders of Cathay Pacific did not actually lose money; in fact, they made a huge profit, since Sun Zhiwei acquired 9% of the shares with real money.

His large investments in previous years diluted the shares of other shareholders proportionally, and now they have all become minority shareholders, but the value of their shares has increased more than tenfold.

Seeing Cathay Bank grow stronger step by step, they now refuse to sell even when asked.

Sun Zhiwei didn't make things difficult for them. He let them stay if they wanted, and it wouldn't hurt to let them have some benefits with Guotai, since they were all considered Guotai's veterans.

He now controls 9% of Cathay Bank's shares, and the other minority shareholders combined will not interfere with his control of Cathay Bank.

For example, right now, he directly called Zheng Jiafa and asked Cathay Bank to open a branch in Johannesburg and Melbourne.

Because he owns gold mines in both locations, he needs to deposit the monthly gold production in his own bank.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Jiafa immediately began preparations without hesitation; he couldn't possibly be unenthusiastic about such a lucrative business.

Because as Cathay Bank's gold reserves increase, the bank's creditworthiness will grow exponentially, which is extremely beneficial to the bank's development.

Even if these two locations had no other business, he would still operate the two branches at a loss just for the gold deposited in them every month.

Of course, the actual situation is unlikely to be that bad. There are also many Chinese people in South Africa and Melbourne, who are potential future customers of Cathay Bank.

This can be considered as a passive way for Cathay Pacific to expand its overseas business footprint.

Only then did the matter finally come to a close. Sun Zhiwei then sent a telegram home, urging Tong Jiajia to come back immediately.

Without the woman in the house, it feels like it's gone back to how it used to be—cold and lifeless, with no sense of home left.

Having already tasted the meat, Sun Zhiwei was unwilling to endure it any longer, so he wanted to find his wife as soon as possible.

A week later, Sun Zhiwei picked up Tong Jiajia at the New York airport in his new car. Everything seemed to have returned to what it was a few months ago, and the two resumed their sweet married life.

But in reality, Sun Zhiwei's net worth has actually seen a historic increase in the past few months.

He doesn't know how the Forbes rankings will change this year, but he's certain that he's no longer number 32.

It was already the end of 83. In that month, Reagan successfully ran for re-election. With his re-election, his governing policies underwent a fundamental change in the following period.

The reason for this change is none other than a European military exercise he advocated two months ago.

The military exercise was a great success, and Reagan always felt that he had gained the upper hand in military deterrence against the Russians, which was his proudest achievement during that period.

(End of this chapter)