Chapter 336: Chapter 292: The Delayed Rubber Crisis

During the time when Europe experienced the Second Moroccan Crisis and the Italo-Turkish War, Arthur and the Royal financial group also carried out numerous actions in Europe.

Firstly, the tense atmosphere and impending war in Europe during these two events caused many civilian factories and companies to depreciate in value in an instant, even facing the danger of bankruptcy.

Not only in the stock markets of France and Germany but also, including the United Kingdom, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia Nation, the stock market conditions were not too great, and after the Italo-Turkish War, Italy’s stock market was added as well.

Of course, the current depreciation situation is not too serious, at least compared to war periods in history.

Once the war breaks out, these enterprises will face even more severe depreciation, which is also an opportunity for Arthur, the royal financial group, and even the entire world to pick up bargains.

After the war, the vast industries of the defeated countries will face bankruptcy, and the acquisition then will be tens of times cheaper than now.

In the meantime, the royal financial group is also heavily selling some of its assets in Europe, including the stocks of some factories and companies invested in by the royal financial group.

If they do not sell now, they will never have the chance to sell again, as these companies will basically always be in a state of depreciation, until the end of the war, except for some more critical military factories.

However, the problem is that military factories are also essential to the powerful nations, and the royal financial group does not yet have the capability to intervene in major military factories of various powerful nations.

Moreover, the military factories of the defeated countries will also face liquidation after the war, and it would not be too late for them to poach some technology of the Krupp Factory at that time.

The only asset not easy to withdraw is the joint car factory built with the United Kingdom and Germany mainland forces.

Whether it is a car factory in the UK or Germany, the scale is already huge, with tens of thousands of workers, making it simply impossible to withdraw investments easily.

However, the good news is that currently, Australasia has good relations with both Germany and the UK; on Arthur’s account, it should not be subject to artillery fire whether it comes to the UK or Germany’s car factories.

Of course, occupation is unavoidable, but surely Australasia can recover its own interests after the war.

It is worth mentioning that during the Second Moroccan Crisis, the Rubber Crisis, which was supposed to break out in 1910, was finally delayed.

The reason for the delay in the outbreak is that the Benz Automobile ushered in an even more brilliant era for the rubber industry, making the world’s rubber development far more exaggerated than historical parallel worlds.

How exaggerated is it? Even between the end of 1910 and the beginning of 1911, there were as many as 200 rubber companies registered in East Asia.

However, the problem is that the quality of these companies is uneven; some are indeed genuine rubber production companies, but others are shamelessly registering rubber companies after buying only a piece of land in the Southeast Asian region.

The purpose of them registering rubber companies is to list their rubber company stocks in the East Asia stock market and make huge profits by selling stocks.

As everyone knows, the rapid development of the rubber industry resulted from cars becoming popular ahead of time worldwide.

This is because car development relies on tires, which are generally made of rubber.

This has led to countless tire factories in various countries; after all, even if they cannot catch up with the technology of the Benz Car Factory, they can also produce tires as car factory tire suppliers and obtain substantial profits.

Take Australasia as an example; the royal financial group of Australasia owns several rubber companies, and there are even more private tire factories, ranging from large to small, amounting to about ten.

Although the Sydney Stock Exchange in Australasia was only established for less than a few months, it also attracted many companies from Europe to register rubber companies here due to its more developed economy and similar culture.

However, Arthur pays great attention to the Sydney Stock Exchange, and the companies listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange also need to undergo certain audits.

At least those companies that only have enough money to buy a piece of land and want to register a rubber company would never succeed in listing on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

However, the situation is different with East Asia stock exchanges. They are controlled by a corrupt nation, which means that these stock exchanges have backward management and insufficient power to supervise and manage foreign enterprises.

Due to a lack of a unified and mature financial management system, East Asia’s stock exchanges have become the primary targets for foreign capital and businesses to plunder wealth.

The international price of rubber has also risen from 2 shillings per pound of rubber at the start of the car’s birth to an exaggerated 17 shillings per pound of rubber.

This has led to the stocks of almost every rubber company rising with the tide, and the stock prices of a newly registered rubber company can quickly double or even increase ten-fold in a short period.

The rubber company of the royal financial group has indeed made considerable profits from this, and even the securities company of the royal financial group has made hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars by merely helping several companies to list their rubber stocks.

Arthur even secretly supported many rubber companies to be established in Southeast Asia and then listed in East Asia to make huge profits.

Arthur learned the real reason for the upcoming Rubber Crisis through information from Germany, which had successfully developed synthetic rubber technology. Furthermore, Germany wanted the synthetic rubber factory it planned to create to have a cooperative relationship with the Benz Car Factory and even become one of its designated tire suppliers.

Historically, it was precisely the technology of synthetic rubber, coupled with the fact that the development of rubber had indeed reached its peak, that led to the Rubber Crisis in 1910.

Once Arthur learned that Germany had successfully developed synthetic rubber technology, he did not hesitate and immediately ordered Butler Kent to instruct the royal financial group to sell all the stocks of rubber companies they held at the fastest speed possible, and for the Sydney Stock Exchange to temporarily suspend the listing of rubber company stocks.

Not selling them would be wrong, as after the outbreak of the Rubber Crisis, not only did the price of rubber fall several times in a short period, but the stock price of rubber companies also plummeted to the limit in a short time.

If the stocks of rubber companies were kept long-term, the losses in the future Rubber Crisis would be far more than what they had earned before.

However, to ensure the smooth sale of the rubber company stocks, Arthur, under his private name, thick-skinnedly asked the Germans to delay the announcement of the synthetic rubber technology for a while.

As compensation to the Germans, Arthur patted his chest and agreed that the German Synthetic Rubber Factory would become one of the tire suppliers for the car factory.

After all, the rubber factory that Germany was supplying was also a German car factory. It was nothing more than transferring their production to another tire factory and letting the Germans worry about it themselves.

In mid-April 1911, the royal financial group finally sold all the stocks of rubber companies.

A few days later, on April 20th, Germany announced that they had successfully developed commercially viable synthetic rubber technology, and they would establish a synthetic rubber factory to replace the existing rubber companies.

With William II happily announcing this news, the stocks of Germany’s rubber companies saw a decline on the same day.

Of course, this was just the beginning of the Rubber Crisis.

Following this, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australasia, the United States, and other important rubber importing countries announced that this year’s (1911) rubber imports would temporarily remain at last year’s level, representing the saturation of the world’s rubber development and the end of the golden age of rubber in recent years.

This news was quite deadly for the current rubber market, as the joint announcement by several major rubber importing countries meant that the development of rubber had reached its peak and the demand for rubber was becoming saturated.

Firms and enterprises entering the rubber market in the future would not only be unable to make money, but they might even threaten the current rubber market.

What was more deadly was that Benz Automobile, the largest car brand in the world, quickly announced that its German factory would cooperate with Germany’s upcoming synthetic rubber factory, using synthetic rubber tires to replace natural rubber tires.

It is worth noting that the role played by automotive developments in promoting the expansion of the rubber industry cannot be underestimated

The four Benz car factories in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australasia, can be described as the four largest car factories in the world.

This indicated that the rubber market would not only fail to expand but would shrink rapidly in a short period.

These pieces of news were devastating for the rubber market, causing rubber stocks to plummet rapidly in various stock markets.

By late April, the price of rubber had fallen from 17 shillings per pound to 11 shillings per pound, a more than one-third decrease in less than ten days.

Of course, even more severe was the state of rubber stocks. By the end of April, the prices of rubber stocks on the London Stock Exchange had generally been reduced to just one-tenth of what they had been ten days before, and the rate of reduction was getting faster and faster.

Rubber company stocks were previously worth several tens of pounds per share, but now most rubber companies’ shares are worth less than ten pounds, and some are generally down to just two or three pounds.

Of course, for a strictly regulated securities trading market like London, it is a manageable situation.

In East Asia’s securities trading market, the plunge is even more severe.

Due to the lack of strict regulation, the number of stock companies in the East Asian securities trading market is vast and mixed with many shell companies.

During the golden hours of stock listing, many people bought stock companies’ stocks, but now people are dumbfounded.

Stocks that were once worth a fortune might not even be enough for a meal now. What’s even worse is that no one wants to take over the stocks they want to sell on the stock market, forcing them to sit back and watch their stocks continue to plummet.

In just over a month, the price of a single stock has plummeted from several tens of pounds to ten pounds, then to a few pounds, and finally to less than one pound.

Such prices do not even reach the initial public offering price, which is enough to prove how intense the Rubber Crisis’s impact on the rubber industry and rubber companies has been.

According to Arthur’s speculation, especially in Southeast Asia, there are at least thousands of rubber companies going bankrupt due to the Rubber Crisis, and the total loss of funds is incalculable.

A few rubber companies that got the news early have already cashed out during the highest stock price and disappeared quietly with the large amount of pounds they earned during this period..

The ordinary stock investors who had no idea about the news could only react when the crisis arrived. By that time, it was too late, and all the people in the stock market were trying to sell their stocks. Who would buy them?