Leveraging his good relationship with the Britain, Lu You not only ventured into the Chinese laborer business, the opium business, the tobacco and alcohol business, and the tin mining business, but also secured tax contracts in four states. These taxes alone brought Lu You no less than five million Straits dollars in wealth each year.
By 1896, Lu You owned one-third of the residential buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Lu You all the opium trade in Lu You Kuala Lumpur, and held gambling, tobacco, and liquor licenses in several Malaya states. These licenses were not simply business licenses for Opium dens, casinos, and restaurants; they were exclusive rights, meaning that only Lu You could legally operate a brewery, opium factory, or casino in the entire state. Anyone else wanting to open Opium den, casino, or sell alcohol had to obtain Lu You's consent. Furthermore, Lu You was appointed as a Selangor State assemblyman and a member of the health department, becoming a prominent figure in Malaya society and highly regarded by Britain officials in the colonial government. He owned 20,000 acres of land in Selangor State, and the numerous mines he acquired and annexed in Lu You regions employed over 100,000 miners.
In 1897, Lu You signed a contract with the Britain colonial government to build a road from Kuala Lumpur to Pahang, Bentong. The colonial government offered Lu You preferential terms, allocating 4,000 acres of mining land in Bentong to him and exempting him from mining land tax for 21 years.
Because Lu You had so many workers, Lu You used these printed banknotes as currency to pay his workers' wages. The workers could use these banknotes to buy anything in Lu You's businesses—tobacco, alcohol, opium, gold, grain, clothing, vegetables, and even real estate. In many parts of Malaya, Lu You's banknotes were more popular than government-issued banknotes.
By the time of Lu You's death, his businesses in Malaya included tax contracting, tin mining, real estate, rubber plantations, coconut farming, coffee, coal mining, shipping, trading, engineering, gold mining, car dealerships, finance, stocks, and more, encompassing almost every industry in Malaya.
At the height of Lu You's power, the Chinese in Malaya were divided into three groups: those who worked for Lu You, those who were waiting to work for Lu You, and Lu You.
Chapter 350 The Exchange
For most Hong Kong, today was just another ordinary morning, like yesterday, with them diligently repeating yesterday's work, waiting for another night to fall so they could finish work and go home.
However, the Hong Kong Securities and Stock Exchange in Central was quite different from its usual quiet atmosphere. Dozens of ceiling fans in the lobby were whirring, trying to bring cool air into the hall. More than thirty stockbrokers were scattered around two long rows of telephones, each with over a hundred phones. A dozen of them were talking loudly into their phones, their voices so loud that even those standing at the entrance could hear what the stockbrokers at the back were saying. The simultaneous cacophony of voices made the trading hall noisier than a vegetable market.
It's not that these stockbrokers speaking loudly into the phone in English are impolite; rather, the Hong Kong Securities and Stock Exchange has had rules since its inception that strictly prohibit stockbrokers from speaking softly when trading or quoting prices, especially the common practice of whispering or talking in each other's ears—a practice deeply ingrained in traditional China business dealings. The exchange mandates that their conversations must be loud enough for most of their colleagues to hear, preventing collusion and cheating among stockbrokers.
Luo Zhuankun's men were among the people making phone calls. Holding the phone, they first relayed today's stock prices to their previously contacted clients in somewhat broken English. After the Shanghai people clients on the other end of the line cursed at them with their broken English and demanded they speak plainly, they shouted loudly to signal to the other traders around them that the client needed them to speak Chinese: "Sir, do you need me to speak Chinese? Okay! I'll relay it to you again in Chinese!"
Studwell, who had come to the exchange specifically for a visit, put down his tea with a grim expression. He had heard another trader loudly announce a buy order in the distance, then walked to the huge blackboard in the trading hall and wrote in neat English: "Buy 200 lots of Xizhen Properties, 1.84."
The stock price has gone up again.
Studwell had been sitting in the exchange hall for almost two hours that morning. At this time, there were dozens of buy orders for Xizhen Properties's stock on the blackboard in the trading hall, totaling more than 4,000 lots. However, there were very few sell orders so far. Occasionally, a small sell order would be immediately absorbed by the huge number of buy orders. According to this trend, by the time the exchange closed in the afternoon, Xizhen Properties's stock price could be easily pushed up to more than three yuan per share by buy orders.
Studwell would have been happy if Xizhen Properties's stock price had risen previously, but he wasn't. According to Lin Xiaosen, Song Tianyao, the wig business owner who was attempting a hostile takeover of Xizhen Properties, hadn't yet raised the necessary funds. But if Song Tianyao hadn't entered the market, what was with that series of buy orders on the blackboard? Were there other mysterious clients secretly entering with cash, preparing to fish in troubled waters? Could it be that Hong Kong had suddenly become interested in the stock market?
"Buy 500 lots of Xizhen Properties! 1.85! From Wardley Securities!"
While Studwell was still frowning at the price of 1.84, another stockbroker walked up to the blackboard, speaking loudly, and hung up another buy order!
Studwell felt that the price should be suppressed now, and a large sell order should be placed to sweep away the small buy orders and dampen the enthusiasm of buyers. Otherwise, seeing the soaring stock price of Xizhen Properties would easily attract more attention. When the price reached a frightening level, Studwell was worried that the Jardine Xizhen Properties shares held by Jardine Matheson would not ultimately be repurchased by the Lin Family with cash plus shares or bonds, but would be released on the stock market to directly extract a large amount of cash.
Jardine is not a charity. Expecting them to transfer the land to the Lin Family at the original acquisition price is completely impossible. However, if the stock price climbs to its peak, where will the Lin Family raise the large amount of cash to satisfy Jardine's appetite? Jardine is no longer interested in land or property; what it is most interested in is cash.
"Sell order! 7,000 lots of Xizhen Properties! Wealth-Through Securities!" a Chinese stockbroker shouted, got up and rushed to the blackboard, quickly made a note on it, and then began to sweep down the buy orders listed on the blackboard.