You ask me what to do with so much wheat? The Livingston Industrial Revitalization Plan?

Chapter 398 You ask me what to do with so much wheat? What the hell is the Livingston Industrial Revitalization Plan? (Part 1)

Upon hearing the knock, old Cargill and McMillan exchanged a glance, and the latter quickly walked to the door.

Cargill's staff opened the door, and there stood Mr. Larry Livingston—along with another well-dressed middle-aged man. He wore round-framed glasses and had a kind, scholarly air about him.

McMillan was slightly surprised, but still smiled and bowed first, "Mr. Livingston, it is our honor that you can keep our appointment on time."

Larry smiled kindly, turned to the middle-aged man beside him, and introduced him, "Mr. George Eastman, my good friend, he's from New York State!"

Then Larry pointed to the other side, "This is Mr. John McMillan of Cargill."

McMillan quickly greeted them and invited them inside for tea and conversation.

The two entered the office side by side and met old Cargill again, followed by the usual small talk and introductions.

After they sat down, McMillan spoke first, "We were just talking about you, Mr. Livingston. Your move in Chicago was simply divine!"

Larry smiled and nodded, without being modest or saying much more.

McMillan gave old Cargill a knowing look, and the latter nodded quickly, saying, "Oh! Yes, if I hadn't experienced it myself, and someone else had recounted your story to me, Larry, I would have thought he was talking nonsense. Who could force such a bumper wheat harvest in a year like this?"

"Empty—it's truly incredible."

"To be precise, it was Mr. Altgird who really taught those unscrupulous speculators a lesson this time," Larry corrected with a smile.

"Who?" Old Cargill asked, puzzled.

McMillan asked in surprise, "Are you referring to the next governor of Illinois?"

"It's him," Larry said with a smile.

Old Cargill blinked, then suddenly exclaimed, "I mean, how could you possibly have such power? I've wanted to tell you this for a long time, Livingston, about Cargill's shares—oh my god!!" Old Cargill suddenly cried out, his words interrupted by his own exclamation.

"What's wrong?" Larry asked curiously.

"It's nothing!" McMillan quickly chimed in, smiling and bowing slightly to Larry. "—We're about to process the liquidation and transfer of shares, and my father-in-law and I would like to provide you with the company's information, as well as the grain inventory information we prepared today. Please wait a moment—we'll go get these documents."

As he spoke, McMillan tugged at old Gaggi's sleeve and pulled him along to the next office.

"Why did you step on my foot?" Old Cargill glared at his son-in-law.

This time, McMillan was equally annoyed. He lowered his voice and said in an unfriendly tone, "What were you trying to do? Bringing up that again..."

Is this a "discard the millstone after it has served its purpose" plan? If you actually dare to say you won't give him any shares—you'll really offend Livingston!!

"I—" Old Cargill frowned, thought for a few seconds, and then said, "What? Didn't you hear? This short squeeze wasn't his fault at all—it was the next governor. That means he's not that important after all—"

"Are you out of your mind?!" McMillan interrupted old Cargill sternly, his tone tinged with anger. "—Mr. Livingston's forced liquidation was undeniably successful. You and I both know that!"

"Then why does he say he didn't do it—"

"Can't you hear what he really means? He's saying he has the governor backing him up!! Or that he has some big shot backing him up. My God! Get your head straight! This is a warning, not a show of humility," McMillan shouted, his face flushed and his voice barely suppressed.

Old Cargill thought for a few seconds before it dawned on him—

"So, so he has the governor backing him up. Is this the governor's property?" Old Cargill looked at McMillan.

McMillan waved his hand. "It's not important, Dad." As he spoke, McMillan took a deep breath and tried his best to suppress his emotions as he patiently explained to his father-in-law.

"—You're a smart man. I know you're so volatile because you're heartbroken over the company you built from scratch, but you also need to know—it's time for this company to get fresh blood. If you hesitate any longer, you'll ruin the company's future. Livingston, he's not someone to be trifled with!"

Old Cargill opened his mouth slightly, then nodded resignedly after a moment, saying, "Alright—it seems I really should quit!"

After a while, old Cargill and McMillan returned to the living room, carrying a pile of documents.

Larry could tell that his father-in-law and son-in-law looked a little awkward, but he didn't care and just smiled casually.

"Take a look—this is all of Cargill's current assets and inventory—" McMillan said with a smile as he handed over the materials. "We've already shown you most of it last time. The key part is the latter half, which is the newly added wheat inventory. We've acquired quite a bit of wheat recently."

Old Cargill sat back down in his chair, his face stiff, but he still asked, "—Mr. Livingston, I must remind you. The wheat debt hasn't been settled yet, and you need to get the money ready as soon as possible; this is the most important thing right now."

Larry nodded, picking up the ledger and flipping through it as he casually replied, "That's why I'm here. We need to sort out the accounting issues as soon as possible. Cargill needs to reorganize quickly—then the farmers can get their money. It's a win-win-win situation, isn't it?"

Old Cargill opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

Larry began to carefully check the accounts, his eyes finally focusing on that number—1348 million bushels + 500 million bushels.

This is all of Cargill's own wheat, including wheat acquired twice in Larry's name, and 500 million bushels of wheat belonging to Cargill, which Larry had previously sold on the exchange, but was subsequently bought back by Larry to force a short squeeze.

McMillan, standing beside Larry, saw him looking at the current inventory levels and solemnly explained, "In the end, you withdrew from the 500 million bushels of wheat, so—they're back in our accounts now. Here's the situation—the initial 500 million bushels belonging to Cargill were a loan, with a $50 deposit; the later acquisition of No. 1 and No. 2 wheat, totaling 650 million bushels, belonged to you, but only a $150 million advance payment was made; and the final 698 million bushels of wheat belonged to the Livingston Agricultural Revitalization Program, also belonging to you. But none of the payments for this batch of wheat have been made—"

Larry nodded slowly, then looked up at McMillan. "What were their respective costs?"

"Your 1348 million bushels of wheat are divided into two parts. The first part, No. 1 wheat, was purchased at 84 cents per bushel, totaling 1.5 million bushels, with a total cost of $126 million. The second part, No. 2 wheat, was purchased at an average price of 74 cents per bushel, with a total price of $3.7 million."

In the later stages of the Livingston Agricultural Revitalization Project, we estimated that a total of 698 million bushels were acquired, with an average cost of 70 cents per bushel, for a total cost of approximately $489 million—but this does not include storage and transportation costs.

Larry nodded. "So how much is it in total? Please include Cargill's warehousing and transportation costs—I want to hear a specific figure."

McMillan nodded; he had already compiled all those numbers.

"Your 1348 million bushels of wheat cost $984.6 million to acquire directly! But that's not all."

McMillan pointed to the other details next to the numbers.

"All operating costs from grain entering storage to the present, including warehousing, short-distance transportation from warehouses in various locations to delivery warehouses,"

Insurance and miscellaneous expenses such as labor have been precisely calculated. These additional costs translate to approximately 5.7 cents per bushel. Therefore, the operating expenses for these 1348 million bushels of wheat amount to $76.8.

He then announced the final figure: "Therefore, the total cost of your 1348 million bushels of wheat, that is, the purchase price plus operating expenses, is $1061.4 million."

Larry nodded slightly; the number was within his expectations. But George Eastman beside him had already taken a deep breath, clearly shocked by the figure.

McMillan summarized, "You previously advanced $150 million. Based on the calculations just now, your total cost is $1061.4 million. This means that after completing the legal documents for ownership, you will still need to pay Cargill a difference of $911.4 million to fully acquire ownership of those 1348 million bushels of wheat."

"So many! My God!" Eastman finally exclaimed.

McMillan nodded to Eastman. "If you don't believe me, you can verify it yourself—you must be Mr. Livingston's accountant or lawyer, right? You can check it yourself."

"Oh, I'm not!" Eastman waved his hands repeatedly.

George Eastman's denial surprised McMillan, who had assumed that the "friends" Larry had brought today were...

The real purpose was to check the accounts together.

Sitting to one side, old Cargill stared at Larry and said solemnly, "Mr. Livingston! Regarding the 500 million bushels of wheat that previously belonged to Cargill, we don't yet know the exact book value, but—your previous handling, especially the high-sell-low-buy strategy, should have resulted in a profit. However, we must make it clear beforehand that since you were 'borrowing' it, we will also share in the profits."

Larry smiled and nodded, "Of course! I promised before that no matter what I did, Cargill would eventually recover all the payment at no less than 95 cents. This will help you overcome the difficulties with the bank's loan."

"Also, you need to deal with all your debts—" Old Cargill added.

"That's not a problem!" Larry said with a smile.

Looking at Larry's expression, Old Cargill saw no unease or hesitation; the last shred of hope in his own heart vanished. Old Cargill knew this young gentleman before him; despite his young age, he never made empty promises.

Since he is so certain, he must have a plan in mind.

However, it's said he made a fortune in this short squeeze, so covering the cost of the wheat shouldn't be a problem.

"—Alright!" Old Cargill nodded. "Mr. Livingston, I know you can afford it—but you need to tell us one thing: what do you plan to do with this wheat? You know, the average price on the spot market right now is a little over 62 cents, while yours..."

The cost is ————

Old Cargill looked at McMillan, who quickly added, "Mr. Livingston's purchase price was over 70 cents, and including all costs, to be precise—78.7 cents per bushel."

As he spoke, McMillan looked at Larry, also curious about how "the amazing Mr. Livingston" would handle these 1348.

10,000 bushels of wheat.

It's important to understand that at that time, the entire United States produced only 5 million bushels of wheat annually, and Larry's purchases represented approximately 2.5% of the total U.S. production. Converted to the international metric system, that's 36 tons of wheat. Keep in mind that the total wheat production in the U.S. at that time was only 1360 million tons.

This is a huge number; if transported by train, it would require 6000 train cars. Enough to feed a city as large as Chicago for a whole year.

Old Cargill stared at Larry, and deep down he simply didn't believe that this young man could actually handle such a large batch of grain.

This is no joke!

Before 1839, the United States had not yet begun to truly develop the Midwest, nor had it entered the railroad era; it was a pre-industrial era. At that time, the total wheat production in the United States was only 8500 million bushels.

In other words, Larry now controls wheat equivalent to one-sixth of the total wheat production in the United States in 1839.

Cargill will already face extreme difficulties dealing with this massive wheat inventory, and Livingston, needing to force a market entry, acquired...

The price of wheat in the market is much higher than that of spot wheat—so dealing with wheat will be a difficult task.

The real world is different from futures, where the price is just a number. But in the real world, a difference of 16 cents per bushel of wheat is a huge difference.

In old Cargill's mind, he couldn't imagine how Larry would handle these huge wheat positions—sell them to Europe? Sell them to Asia?

No matter who he sells to, his costs are much higher than others, so how can he make a profit?

Old Cargill even thought that Larry was actually losing money to gain publicity and wouldn't make any money from this "epic short squeeze" at all!

Now, even George Eastman is looking at Larry—

Before arriving, George Eastman only knew that Larry had pulled off a big heist! But that was from Larry's telegrams and from various sources he learned after arriving in Chicago. Before coming here, he had no idea that Larry was playing such a massive game, consuming so much grain in one fell swoop just to manipulate the wheat market!

That's incredible!

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Larry maintained his calm yet polite smile.

He nodded first, acknowledging the skepticism of the crowd, "Yes, gentlemen. I currently have a large wheat inventory, and the price is high. I know you're worried I..."

What to do with this wheat? You might even think I'll sell it at a discount, like selling junk stocks at a discount, but I want to tell you, don't worry—I'm here to make money. Whether it's from the futures market or the wheat spot market—”

After Larry finished speaking, there was no reaction. All three of them stared at him, and no one believed what he said.

"But you have a misconception—you always think that wheat is just wheat. You think my wheat has to compete with everyone else's wheat—that's wrong! Gentlemen, wheat is just a primary agricultural product,"

Larry looked at the crowd, whose eyes were still filled with confusion. They all sensed the hidden meaning in his words, but they didn't know what his conclusion was.

"—In fact, I think one thing is really stupid. Why should the United States sell wheat? There's no profit in selling primary agricultural products! What we need to do is turn it into a more advanced food industry, and that's my plan."

Larry surveyed the crowd and revealed his long-held, true intention: "Develop the food industry! This will be a plan for a light industrial production cluster that benefits us, and even future generations. I would call it the Livingston Industrial Revitalization Plan! This is why I invited Mr. George Eastman here. We want to revitalize Rochester, New York, and let 'American Mills' contribute high-end, industrial-grade food to the world."