FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26  
27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   >>   >|  
"There's old Dreadnought Phipps," White continued. "Peter Phipps, to give him his right name. Well, has ever a man who aspires to be considered a financial giant had such a career? He was broken on the New York Stock Exchange, went to Montreal and made a million or so, back to New York, where he got in with the copper lot and no doubt made real money. Then he went for that wheat corner in Chicago. He got out of that with another fortune, though they say he sold his fellow directors. Now he turns up here, chairman of the B. & I., who must have bought fifty million pounds' worth of wheat already this year. Well, unless he's considerably out of his depth, he must have some one else's money to play with besides his own." "Let me see, who are the other directors?" Kendrick enquired. "Well, there's young Stanley Rees, Phipps' nephew, who came in for three hundred thousand pounds a few years ago," Maurice White answered; "old skinflint Martin, who may be worth half a million but certainly not more; and Dredlinton. Dredlinton's rabbit, of course. He hasn't got a bob. There's money enough amongst the rest for any ordinary business undertaking, if only one could understand what the mischief they were up to. They can't corner wheat in this country." "I wonder," Kendrick murmured. "The harvests last year were bad all over the world, you know, and this year, except in the States and Canada, they will be worse. With another fifty million it might be done." "But they're taking deliveries," White pointed out. "They have granaries all over the kingdom, subsidiary companies to do the dirty work of refusing to sell. Already they say that three quarters of the wheat of the country is in their hands, and mind you, they sell nothing. The price goes up and up, just the same as the price of their shares has risen. They buy but they never sell. Some of the big banks must be helping, of course, but I know one or two--one in particular---who decline to handle any business from them at all." "I should say their greatest risk was Government interference," Kendrick observed. "Gambling in foodstuffs ought to be forbidden." "It would take our Government a year to make up their minds what to do," White scoffed, "and by that time these fellows would have sold out and be on to something else." "Well, it's too hot for shop," Kendrick yawned. "I think I shall cut work on Friday and have a long week-end at Sandwich." "I have a good mind to
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26  
27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Kendrick

 

million

 

Phipps

 
country
 
Government
 

directors

 
Dredlinton
 

pounds

 

business

 

corner


pointed
 

taking

 

deliveries

 

subsidiary

 

fellows

 
refusing
 

companies

 

kingdom

 

yawned

 
granaries

Friday

 
Sandwich
 

States

 

Already

 

Canada

 

handle

 

decline

 
foodstuffs
 

Gambling

 

observed


forbidden

 

greatest

 

interference

 

shares

 

scoffed

 

helping

 

quarters

 

Chicago

 

fortune

 

fellow


copper

 

considerably

 

bought

 

chairman

 

aspires

 

Dreadnought

 
continued
 

considered

 

financial

 

Exchange