Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 222 - 222 2 Park

222: Chapter 2 Park 222: Chapter 2 Park In 1719, France established a company named the Mississippi Company.

Its main business was to develop a colony in the Mississippi Valley, downstream in central America.

If this task were accomplished, it would have ensured the kingdom’s vast interests in America.

To obtain the funds for this plan, the company, which had deep ties with the royal court, sold its shares in the stock market.

And distinguished personages who could represent the court, considering various factors, greatly hyped the company’s stocks.

This led to everyone in the kingdom having tremendous confidence in the company’s shares.

In May 1719, when the company’s shares were listed, the stock price was 500 livres.

By August 1 of that year, the stock price had risen more than fivefold.

On August 30, the stock price broke through the 4,000 barrier.

And such a surge lasted for 13 months.

At its peak, the stock price of the Mississippi Company was more than twenty times its initial listing price.

But the moment the sense of crisis struck, those whose confidence wavered began to sell off their shares.

What followed was like an irreversible avalanche.

The stock price of the Mississippi Company plummeted for 13 months, and the kingdom’s wealth evaporated like the last snows of spring.

This incident greatly damaged the kingdom’s financial credit.

At the time, the King’s Comptroller, John Law, was an exceptional banking genius.

With alchemical deftness that surpassed the gold standard system created by Isaac Newton, he established the world’s first credit currency system guaranteed by the state in the kingdom.

However, this little genius, no matter how he tried, could not save the collapse of the kingdom’s financial credit, or more precisely, that of the royal family.

Xiang Shan looked at Bernard, his hands unconsciously waving in front of him, “Old Di, let me put it this way…

I pay you a salary, but that doesn’t include bamboozling me, okay?”

Bernard Dubois remained composed, “Just chatting about a historical topic.”

“But you’re clearly biased in choosing your arguments,” Xiang Shan shrugged.

“Although the kingdom has no respect for economic laws, the British Empire across the sea isn’t much better off.

In 1720, ah, just one year after 1719, the British Empire experienced an even worse ‘South Sea Bubble’—to escape the immense national debt, the empire blew an even bigger bubble domestically.”

Bernard nodded, “I didn’t expect you to be so familiar with historical topics.”

“This is not the case,” Xiang Shan tapped on his glasses.

“It’s just that I can proficiently use external thinking organs.

So even if I know nothing about history, I can still look up information online temporarily.”

Bernard laughed, “Tsk tsk, to someone old like me, this is truly a wicked device—It wipes out the slight advantage we elderly have over young people in experience.

But come to think of it, is searching that easy?”

“Ah, not really.

But as a scientist, I’m somewhat familiar with the life of Sir Isaac Newton.

I roughly remember that he once lost money in stock trading.

The knight said, ‘I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.'”

Isaac Newton was known to the world as a physicist and mathematician.

But that was only part of his life.

This genius also was a theologian with substantial research in Bible textual criticism.

He also served as the master of the mint, contributing the “gold standard” to financial history.

This was not a case of a “greenhorn scholar stumbling into the stock market.”

It was just that at that time, everyone in the British Empire was like mad.

At the beginning of 1720, a colonial company in the empire named the “South Sea Company” reached a deal with the imperial parliament, in which the company subscribed to a massive amount of national bonds, and in return, the empire reciprocated with many business privileges.

In short, it was almost a replica of the events that occurred the previous year across the Channel in Europe, where large amounts of capital flowed into the company, causing the stock price to surge and then the bubble to burst.

“If you want to talk about severity…

well, from the perspective of financial history, most scholars feel that the South Sea Bubble was probably a bit worse.

If the empire and the kingdom were to compete for which was worse, the empire certainly had the upper hand.”

“And the reason the British Empire was able to later outperform the French kingdom is obvious because…

first, John Kay was an imperial citizen; second, James Hargreaves was an imperial citizen; then, James Watt was an imperial citizen; and finally, George Stephenson was also an imperial citizen.

That’s it.”

John Kay, the inventor of the Flying Shuttle.

James Hargreaves, the inventor of the spinning jenny.

James Watt, the improver of the steam engine.

George Stephenson, the inventor of the steam locomotive.

These critical inventions initiated the First Industrial Revolution in the British Empire.

Consequently, the British Empire became the massive empire where “the sun never sets.”

Bernard laughed, “So, you mean to say you’re Watt?”

“Ah, I might be George Stephenson?” Xiang Shan smiled, “Yawgmoth or Anatoly are far more qualified to be ‘Watt’ than anyone else.”

“‘Finance’, after all, is something that exists ‘between subjects’.

The thermodynamics and mechanics behind the ‘steam engine’ are closer to ‘objective laws’.

I think the latter is still much stronger than the former.”

At this moment, the intercom in the car opened again, and the assistant spoke up, “Chairman Xiang, Mr.

Dubois, we’re about to arrive at the park.”

Then, the intercom shut off.

Inside the car, the two men looked at each other for a few seconds.

“Although I can somewhat understand that you management types have your own demands and visions for the company’s development, please don’t use that kind of talk with me.

For me, that’s a mark against you,” Xiang Shan said.

“‘We’ believe that the way things are now is the right track.

If you think this direction lacks a future… Well, I wouldn’t want to say anything too damaging to our relationship.

You get what I mean?”

With a natural smile on his somewhat wrinkled face, Bernard replied, “I can’t just jump ship at a time like this, boss.

I truly believe you guys can be the ‘Watts’ of the new era.

Following you is how to make a fortune in the next industrial revolution.”

Xiang Shan sighed and looked out the window.

This was the Transhumanist High-Tech Industrial Park located in Daxing District, a science park that had officially started construction the year before last and had gone into operation last year.

Currently, only the first phase of construction was complete.

The main users here were R&D institutions under Xiang Shan and his friends, as well as the supporting enterprises for these research institutions.

In addition, through connections with local scholars like Xiang Shan and Chen Feng, the park had also established a deep connection with universities such as Tsinghua and Peking University.

Of course, what mattered most was the projects inside.

The entire world knew that the park was conducting research on ‘Prosthetic Bodies’ and ‘medical genetic modification.’ Over the years, this place had become a veritable ‘Geek Mecca.’ Even if the core areas of the park were off-limits, technologists from all over the world still flocked here to give birth.

But after nightfall, the majority of visitors were live streamers.

Wearing LED-lit clothing, they chattered into their phones.

Bernard took interest in the view outside the window: “Let’s see if there’s any eye-catching girls this time—not that these people aren’t strange enough.

Do they really think that strapping LEDs to their clothes makes them ‘cyberpunk’?”

“Who knows?”

Xiang Shan muttered, still contemplating Bernard’s attitude just now.

If judging solely from a personal perspective, Old Di was a good person, charitable, compassionate, tolerant, and one of the rare professional managers who could tolerate the radical tendencies within Xiang Shan’s team—after all, conservatives were all too common in this industry.

However, his business philosophy was unrelated to his personal character.

As a business manager, Old Di was simply ‘capital personified’—the professional ethics of a manager required him to ensure the ‘multiplication’ of capital.

Regardless of whether he was a good or bad person, as long as he operated the business according to capital’s instincts, he was contributing to the ‘inequality’ of this world.

Whether a good or bad person, in that position, he only had to choose actions that benefited the growth of capital.

Otherwise, ‘capital’ would flow to someone else who could fulfill that role.

—Was that just casual talk?

Was he trying to influence me subtly or making a statement?

—How many managers share those thoughts?

Are they forming a considerable faction?

Xiang Shan was never particularly suited for contemplating these issues.

However, he at least understood that what his people were researching was going to change the course of human history.

As the developers of the technology, they had the responsibility to control the impact their work could create.

The car stopped momentarily before a large gate.

After checking their credentials, the security let them through.

These men were veterans from elite military forces, and some of them had secret contacts with national security.

They ensured that no one unauthorized could enter this core area of the park.

Soon, the business car stopped outside a ten-story small building.

Xiang Shan exited the car.

Bernard waved to him: “Happy Chinese New Year’s Eve, boss.”

Xiang Shan nodded.

After he stepped through the gate, a VR headset immediately displayed a list of “pending documents” in the upper-left corner of his field of vision, some of which had countdowns attached.

On the left side of his vision, a row of small portraits was also revealed.

These were the avatars of “frequent contacts” he often interacted with at work who were still in the park and didn’t have pressing tasks at the moment.

Carrying his laptop bag, Xiang Shan returned to his office.

The office was styled in minimalistic fashion, without much decoration, and the desk was not the usual solid wood but made of stainless steel.

Xiang Shan fired up his computer and first sent a piece of code he had written in his spare time outside to the lab to arrange testing.