"Hello, Li, it's an honor to meet you."

"Hello, Mr. Byron, Mr. Dunkvey."

"..."

Under Harden's introduction, Li Yuan met the two British gentlemen. Yes! They were indeed personable and gentlemanly.

The British in this era still behave like old-fashioned gentlemen, especially the upper-class elite. They carry a low-key arrogance and cold courtesy.

They even kissed Li Lanlan's hands politely, which made the little girl turn pale with fright.

Today, this girl is stalking again. She has just come into contact with Hei, and she is curious about Hei and Bai again. She insists on being Li Yuan's female assistant and staying with him.

I didn’t expect that just a foreign courtesy would reveal her true colors, right?

The two parties met for afternoon tea. The conditions here were limited, so we only ordered hot milk tea and small cakes.

To be honest, Li Yuan was rather fed up with the red tape of old Europe, which was like a notebook.

Although it is understandable that this is a way to quickly find your niche in social activities. But everyone is very busy, can you save some time?

Therefore, the etiquette of each country is relatively unique, but it never changes away from its origins, just to determine its ecological niche.

For example, in Japan and South Korea, they simply give business cards first, and then use some words to determine the position of the social target.

The United States is more direct, with big houses, big luxury cars, and black people also like big gold chains and big gold watches. After going to various parties, they want to have dollars printed directly on their faces. It is straightforward and uses the amount of money to compare the size.

Europe is more complicated. The emphasis is on the aristocratic etiquette of the upper class, especially in England. I wish I could even have a noble accent?

We Chinese people are better! When we meet, we always ask, "Have you eaten? What to eat?", "What does your wife do for a living?", "Where do your parents work?"...

Maybe Westerners are not used to it, as it seems to involve personal privacy. But in fact, this is also an examination of the other person's family niche.

It's just that Chinese people are very down-to-earth. You can basically judge the family situation by looking at what you can eat.

However, in all these situations, you are basically facing strangers. If the other person’s ecological niche has already been determined, then just do whatever you want? Why waste your time with your mother-in-law?

With a smile, Li Yuan chatted perfunctorily with the two British people. He couldn't help but complain in his heart, no wonder they all said that the British were very rigid in doing things.

"Byron, Dunkwei, let me tell you, Lee and I are both Manchester United fans. Haha!" Harden on the side acted as the atmosphere group and talked about the British favorite football.

Li Yuan was secretly amused. I am obviously a favorite of Manchester City. Or, in other words, I love whoever wins, the champion is a loser!

Sure enough, Byron and Dunkwe suddenly became more enthusiastic: "What a pity, last season was Cantona's magical season. But this season, you Manchester United will definitely have no chance. Especially that sissy who only relies on his face."

"who?"

Li Yuan suddenly became curious.

Even if he is not a very experienced fan, Li Yuan also knows that French star Cantona kicks fans on the field.

The only person with a more fiery temper than him is the Bulgarian star Stoichkov. He directly hit the referee with a ball on the field and received a red card on the spot and a lifetime ban. The sentence was later commuted to a one-year ban.

However, in Manchester United last season, Cantona was indeed quite amazing. After his comeback, he scored key goals or key assists in almost every game. This enabled Manchester United to win an unprecedented second double crown.

It should be said that Cantona is extremely popular now and he is one of the hottest stars in the world.

During the 1998 World Cup, French coach Jacquet did not bring Cantona with him, and he was scolded by the entire France. And then... Zidane also won the Hercules Cup! (laughing and crying)

So, how is it possible that there is a player more famous than Cantona in the current Manchester United team?

Byron smiled and said disdainfully: "That coward who only knows how to trick girls with his face and doesn't know how to play football. Haha, do you know Beckham?"

Li Yuan: "..."

It seems that this future international superstar and the savior of the England team has a hot girl, right? Will he be a sissy?

And I think about it, Sir Alex Ferguson has made a big change at Manchester United this season, recruiting a group of players such as Butt, Gary Neville, Beckham, Scholes and so on from the youth team. They can be called the golden generation of Manchester United. They are famous all over Europe.

It sparked a youth storm. In addition to winning three consecutive league titles, it also won an unprecedented triple crown? Truly creating a Manchester United dynasty?

If this is the case, is it too late to change the club? It seems that being a Manchester United fan is not a bad idea...what the hell!

Who in their brains would be interested in football? Just punish him by watching 100 national football games! I guarantee it will make him feel so good!

…

"Haha." Li Yuan was not ready to continue the pleasantries, "Byron, Dunkewei, do you have something to do with me?"

Byron and Dunkwei looked at each other secretly: "Li, we have a good and profitable business here. Are you interested?"

"Oh? Let me introduce you!"

"Okay! That's it..."

With the introduction of these two British people, I finally understood the ins and outs of this business.

In Hong Kong, there is a company called JK Trading Company, which must be a British-owned trading company, a long-established British-owned family business.

In the past, there were many such British-funded trading houses, which basically engaged in trade, using Britain's vast colonial resources to conduct various monopoly businesses.

Of course, with the rise of local Chinese capital in Hong Kong, companies like JK Commercial Bank are becoming increasingly unsustainable. They have no industry, no mainland resources, and no local connections. They can only rely on monopoly resources taken care of by the British Hong Kong government. Such as land

, finance and the like.

However, as the handover approaches, those British-funded firms must have sold off fixed assets such as land at high prices. The only thing left is the funds accumulated over the years.

And the JK family changed their investment targets. Through the long-term relationship network established in the Far East, coupled with the investment convenience within the Commonwealth countries, they acquired several minerals in Africa and contacted the London Metal Exchange.

relation.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Let’s put it simply! Mining in Africa and hedging through London futures. Although you may not earn much, at least it will bring a steady flow of cash to the family.

flow.

Hearing this, Li Yuan frowned slightly: "Byron, Dunkewei, is there a war in those mines?"

If there is a war, who would be interested in interfering with it?

The African World War in Central Africa is only the first half now, and there will be a second half in the future. And what should we do? It is impossible to use mercenaries. There is a lot of peace business in the world.

Dunkwei smiled and shook his head: "Li, you misunderstood. Those mines are very safe, basically... well, they are protected by us. But now a major accident has happened in London."

"Major accident? What was that?"

"that is……"

What made Li Yuan dumbfounded was that he then heard about a very famous historical event that he had heard about in his previous life - the Sumitomo Copper Incident.

This mess was caused by Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. It was a sensation at the time, and later became a classic negative futures case for a long time.

As the world's major copper resource country, Hondo has been engaged in copper business and trade for a long time. In particular, Sumitomo Trading Co., one of the Hondo consortium, is the world's largest copper product dealer and exporter. The trading company has also gradually developed into Hondo.

The third largest and most powerful financial comprehensive enterprise group and one of the largest trading firms in the world.

Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. is the core entity of the entire Sumitomo Group. In 1995, the copper trading volume reached 750,000 tons, accounting for approximately 7.5% of the world's copper production of 10.04 million tons that year. The copper futures contract turnover accounted for approximately 1% of the total London Metal Exchange market turnover.

14%.

However, a few months ago, on June 14, 1996, Tomiichi Akiyama, President of Japan's Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd., announced in Tokyo that Yasuo Hamaka, the head of the company's nonferrous metals trading department and chief trader, and an employee who resigned eight years ago,

Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. suffered a huge loss of US$1.8 billion due to its long-term unauthorized trading of international copper futures.

Once the Sumitomo incident was disclosed, it immediately caused a sharp fall in international copper futures market prices. The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange plummeted from US$2,150/ton before the news was announced to US$1,800/ton on June 17. Due to Sumitomo

The trading company still has 2 million tons of copper to sell, and its losses have further expanded. It is conservatively estimated that its losses have reached at least 3 billion US dollars.

That Hamanaka Yasuo was once a god. When he was at the London Metal Exchange, the non-ferrous metals trading group of Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. he led controlled as much as 5% of the global copper trading volume, and was known as the "five percenter".

gentlemen".

However, starting from January 1995, copper prices experienced a rapid downward trend. By the beginning of 1996, they had fallen below US$2,600/ton. The continuous decline in copper prices caused Hamanaka Tainan to not only lose all the profits from his long positions, but also incurred considerable losses.

Serious losses.

For a long time before the incident, Tainan Hamanaka was still letting the news out in the market, saying that he had huge copper spot transactions with several companies in China, and that he had long-term long-term copper futures contracts on the grounds that he needed hedging.

In an attempt to influence the copper market price.

However, the excessively high copper futures price has attracted a large number of short-term speculators to enter the market for short selling, including some well-known investment funds, such as Soros Quantum Fund, Robertson Tiger Fund, etc...

At this time, the strike at an important mine in Chile, the world's largest copper producer, was subsided, and the supply and demand situation in the copper market improved; and the copper purchases of several Chinese companies, Hamanaka Tainan's important trading partner, have been confirmed

Not as much as claimed…

In the blink of an eye, the entire copper futures market collapsed, causing major turmoil in the copper metal market.

The main reason is that before the incident, Yasuo Hamanaka was the director, chief trader and account administrator of the nonferrous metals trading department of Sumitomo Trading Company. He was also the head of the trading department, trader, accountant, and cashier. There was almost no

Audit system. This created extremely convenient conditions for Hamanaka Tainan to engage in unauthorized off-book transactions for a long time, tamper with accounts and records privately, and conceal huge losses in transactions.

Okay! After listening to these details, Li Yuan found it very interesting. But do these things have anything to do with him?

Anyway, Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. is thick-skinned and rough-skinned. I haven’t heard of bankruptcy since then, right?

"You two, I'm sorry, but what do you want me to do?"

"Oh! Byron is now the financial advisor to the JK family. They are now facing bankruptcy and are in urgent need of a kind white knight."

That Byron quickly explained: "Li, that's not entirely the case. The assets of the JK family are very good. The only thing missing is a little lubricant, that is, funds. Haha."

Byron also smiled and introduced: It turns out that the Far East network that the JK family found was Sumitomo Corporation.

Mines are mined, and then the spot goods are provided to Sumitomo Corporation, and then the value is maintained through futures...
To be continued...