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Guangzhou, Stock Exchange.

Zheng Zhilong is 61 years old this year. Ever since he was stripped of his title of duke and only had a small title, he has been listening to plays and feasting all day long, and no longer cares about anything outside.

This time, it was rare to travel far away. One was to Guangzhou to see his son, and the other was to watch the excitement of the exchange.

The bell tower rang nine o'clock, and the door of the exchange finally opened.

Zheng Zhilong squeezed in with his entourage and saw several blackboards hanging in front of him, with the names of stocks and futures written on them.

There are only nine stocks and only a few futures.

Since it is the first day of opening, all stocks and futures have a guide price written on them to facilitate investors to bid before the market opens.

The supervisor of the Canton Stock Exchange is Huo Zhensheng. He is a serious Jinshi and previously worked at Datong Bank. He asked the official to beat the gong to signal everyone to be quiet, and then held up the tin trumpet and said: "The Guangzhou Stock Exchange is opening today. Let me briefly outline the rules..."

Of course, the general direction of the six trading rules set by Zhao Han must be followed, but the details must be changed in practice.

Because in the era before computers, securities trading lagged too far.

Zheng Zhilong didn't understand it after listening for a long time, but he hired a securities broker and ordered: "You get the other things done first, and I'll take a look before talking."

The broker immediately went to buy the application form. This thing also costs money. The buy order is printed with red ink, and the sell order is printed with blue ink. I bought hundreds of them at once, took them back and stood next to Zheng Zhilong and obeyed his orders.

Someone has already filled out the form to bid, and this process has also changed Zhao Han's regulations. Only for the first five minutes of application orders, you can choose to cancel the order, because manual labor is too busy and it is easy to cause chaos on site.

There was no closing price yesterday, and the official bidding parameters were set.

As time goes by, the data of each stock and futures is written on the blackboard by traders with chalk...the highest buying price, the lowest selling price, the most traded price, the opening price, etc.

"Can I buy this?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

The broker suggested: "Don't buy the old stocks of Indian trading companies, they have been raised too high. You can buy the stocks of Dianjin Bank, which was the former Wanshengyuan Bank and is currently the only bank stock. The issue price is 10 Two taels per share, today’s opening price is sixteen taels, we will definitely make money.”

"Then buy 50 shares first!" Zheng Zhilong was very proud. This little money was just drizzle to him.

The buying and selling price of the application form is filled in a range, otherwise manual matching will be too difficult.

Zheng Zhilong asked his agent to submit the application and waited for thirteen minutes before finally completing the transaction. Then he stared at the blackboard. The stock price gradually changed from 16 taels to 16.2, 16.5, 16.9... Every 15 minutes, the trader would use chalk to change the stock price.

About 40 minutes later, Midas Bank's stock price suddenly stopped moving, with a chalk circle next to it marked "Limited Limit."

Zheng Zhilong asked: "The limit means no more buying and selling?"

The broker explained: "There are too many people buying from Midian Gold Bank. The court stipulates that the daily price increase or decrease can be up to 15%. We can't buy or sell today. We can only come back tomorrow."

"Then you calculate how much I earned." Zheng Zhilong said.

Since when you apply to buy stocks, you fill in the price range, the matching transaction prices are also different. The agent banged on the abacus and said with a smile: "Congratulations, Sir Alex. After excluding dental fees (the agent's commission) and ticket taxes, excluding the money spent on purchasing the application form, Sir Alex Ferguson made a net profit of 112 yuan, 30.6 cents today." .”

Zheng Zhilong said in surprise: "I am sitting here, not daring to do anything, just buy some stocks, and I can earn more than a hundred taels of silver?"

"Sir Sir Alex contributed the capital." the agent said.

Zheng Zhilong had long been tired of being at home. He had tried various entertainment methods, and now he finally found a new way to play.

Zheng Zhilong did not lack this little money. He just thought it was interesting and said, "Go and buy again. The bank's stocks have reached their daily limit. Other stocks have not stopped yet. If they all stop, I will buy futures."

The broker doesn’t advise me because I only know a few stocks, and now everything I buy will go up.

In just over 20 minutes after the market opened in the afternoon, all nine stocks hit their daily limits. Immediately afterwards, even futures hit their daily limit.

There are too many wealthy businessmen along the coast, and the stock exchange is new. Many wealthy people have nothing to do, so they come here to speculate in stocks like Zheng Zhilong.

It has been trading at the daily limit for more than three months, and the number of stocks has increased to 17.

Suddenly news came that a ship from the Indian trading company was missing, but it encountered a storm on the way.

Indian trading companies whose stock prices have reached ridiculous levels stopped receiving buy orders within a few minutes of opening. Zheng Zhilong held a bunch of stocks in his hands and kept lowering the selling price, but no one came to buy them.

This situation lasted for more than a month, and the locked-up stocks were finally sold one after another.

"How much did you pay?" Zheng Sen smiled.

Zheng Zhilong said: "Not much, I only lost more than three thousand taels of silver."

More than three thousand taels of silver was not much to Zheng Zhilong, but he was very angry and found it difficult to keep his face.

Zhao Zhenfang said: "Someone hanged himself."

Zheng Zhilong said in surprise: "Suicide for stocks?"

Zheng Sen sighed: "That man made a lot of money buying stocks, and his play became more and more wild. He even mortgaged his house and asked for a bank loan to trade stocks. The stocks of Indian trading companies plummeted, and several stocks with extremely high stock prices also fell with it. He also Unable to afford a loan, the house was taken away by the bank, and the whole family lived on the street. Unable to think about it, he climbed over the wall into his house and hanged himself in the main room."

"This stock is harmful to people." Zheng Zhilong also expressed emotion.

Zheng Sen took the opportunity and said, "It's OK for me to play stocks, but don't be too obsessed."

Zheng Zhilong said harshly: "I'm just having fun."

Newspapers and magazines here in Guangzhou published news about suicide by stock trading, which instantly aroused heated discussion throughout the city.

Shengdou Xiaomin regards stocks as poisonous snakes and beasts, thinking that they are gambling, and educates his children not to enter the exchange. Some intellectuals have also written articles criticizing securities trading, criticizing stocks and futures for deceiving people and being the most morally corrupt thing in the world.

However, new stocks are constantly being listed, especially banking stocks.

Some newspapers and magazines also added sections to talk about the stock market. Stock experts came from nowhere to give advice on how to trade stocks in newspapers.

Zheng Zhilong is very interesting. His company is not listed on the market, but he likes to play in the stock market.

He also particularly likes short-term operations because long-term investment is not exciting.

Zheng Zhilong also met some stock traders, all of whom were wealthy businessmen. They joined forces to create fake news, bribed newspapers to spread it, and artificially caused stocks to rise and fall sharply.

Afterwards, several newspaper offices were smashed up, and even a newspaper editor was beaten to paralysis by angry stock investors.

The matter was so big that even the official residence of Zheng Sen, the political envoy to the left, was surrounded by stock investors demanding justice.

"Father, are you also involved?" Zheng Sen's face was very ugly.

Zheng Zhilong denied it flatly: "I didn't."

Zheng Sen said: "All the employees of the newspaper involved have been interrogated, and the person who bribed them has been found by following the clues."

"Did you confess me?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

Zheng Sen sneered: "Who dares to testify against this lord? But four of the wealthy businessmen who speculated in stocks with my father have been arrested by the government!"

Zheng Zhilong didn't take it seriously and said, "I'm sorry they don't dare to expose me."

Zheng Sen was extremely angry: "Does father lack that little money?"

Zheng Zhilong said: “It’s not lacking, but it’s interesting.”

Zheng Sen said: "In addition to fines, all newspapers involved will have their licenses stamped with a red seal. If they dare to commit the crime again, their licenses will be revoked and their descendants will not be allowed to operate newspapers for three generations. As for those wealthy businessmen, their trading companies have also been stamped with a red seal. Seal, if you come two more times, it will affect your children and grandchildren's ability to take the imperial examinations and become officials in the future. Father, please take care of yourself!"

Zheng Zhilong did not dare to deliberately create false news, but he quickly learned other tricks.

There was a small stock that had just been listed. Because Zheng Zhilong bought too much, he accidentally became the banker. Then he discovered that he could operate, and the investors were like fools, being led by his nose.

Zheng Zhilong has repeatedly tried to wash the market, raise prices, and ship goods. He has made tens of thousands of taels of silver in the stock market just by relying on this routine.

Gradually, investors became wiser and realized that someone was taking advantage of the market. Anyone who makes a market wash on small stocks will soon be noticed by the old investors, and the banker may even trap him.

There is also a group of securities brokers who quietly join forces to use their clients' money to manipulate stock prices to make huge profits.

There are more and more messy ways of playing games, forcing the China Securities Regulatory Commission to make new regulations.

When Li Quan returned to Shanghai again, he found that it was different from last year. Even the driver pulling the fortune car was talking about how much money someone had made in the stock market, with an envious look on his face and he wished he could also trade in the stock market.

People at the bottom really don’t dare to speculate in stocks because the minimum investment is one tael of silver. How many kilograms of rice can they buy?

Li Quan wrote a letter to the emperor, asking whether Sihai Trading Company was listed on the market, and said that he planned to go sailing and explore.

His ambition is not to do business. The American route is on the right track. Li Quan has also built two new ships and is preparing to take the crew to see other places.

Zhao Han received the letter and learned about the situation of the three major exchanges. He wrote back: "Sihai Trading Company will not be listed for the time being, otherwise the stock will cause a frantic rush and even rise to an incredible price."

The stipulations made before left out a very important element.

Some of the original shareholders of a listed company saw their stock prices skyrocketing and sold a large amount to cash out. Due to improper operation, this move caused the stock price to plummet. Other shareholders sued the company to the government, and investors who lost their investment also started to make a fuss.

Due to the lack of relevant regulations, the case had to remain dormant, and the Securities and Futures Commission submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Finance and Cabinet for approval.

That is, the original shareholders of a listed company and the stocks they hold must be different from ordinary shareholders. All original shares are prohibited from being sold on the stock market within two years of the company's listing. After two years, the sales limit is increased year by year.

Zhao Han pays attention to the development of the securities market every month. There are many disturbing things, but the rules are also constantly improving.

In fact, the situation in the exchanges in the Netherlands is similar. The loophole-taking operations of wealthy businessmen have affected market security and forced big capitalists to make adjustments.

However, China's rectification efforts are even greater.

As for the Dutch stock exchange, all loopholes that benefit big businessmen have been selectively ignored.

In just one or two years of development, China's stock exchange will inevitably be more standardized than that of the Netherlands. This is a unique advantage of a centralized government.