"Tony, look what I bought!" On this day, Heidi proudly showed off a book in front of Tangning.
At first, Tangning thought she had bought some original or signed book, but when she picked it up, she found that it was not a book, but a travel diary called "Travel Notes on the Kingdom of Boas".
After thinking about it for a moment, he immediately burst into laughter and said, "Where did you buy such a magical book?"
The reason why Tang Ning said this book is magical is because the story behind this book, as the name suggests, is the travel notes of the author Thomas Stanchway in the "Kingdom of Poas". The general framework is similar to Marco Polo's travel notes. Of course, it is also similar to the travel notes of Marco Polo.
The background of "Marco Polo's Travels" is similar, except that Marco Polo has not yet confirmed whether he has really been to China. However, this "Travels to the Kingdom of Boas" is completely fake, because there is no "Kingdom of Boas" in the world.
"The presence
In fact, this book "Travel to the Kingdom of Boas" was written by McGregor himself, who lied about being "Prince of Boas" and carried out an epic fraud. The purpose of writing this book was to add credibility to his fraud.
Credibility.
Although this McGonagall is not the liar with the largest amount of fraud in history, the "essence" of fraud is to build undue trust and make people believe that something fictitious exists - or is like divine help.
stock picking techniques (such as the Madoff case), or high-return risk-free investment projects (such as the Ponzi scheme).
At this point, McGregor is much more courageous than all liars: because he made up a fictional country!
Reger claimed that the country of Poyas covers an area of 8 million acres (larger than Wales, England) and is located near the Black River in Central America, which is now Honduras. This country is extremely rich in natural resources but is in urgent need of development, so it needs to absorb funds and
absorb immigrants.
This guy was extremely capable of deception, giving speeches and propaganda everywhere, and at the same time using his carefully crafted "Travels to the Kingdom of Boas" as promotional material. As a result, he won a great victory. Not only did the British rush to donate their money to buy the bonds of this fictitious government, but
There are even people who happily “immigrate” to this country that does not exist!
Another important reason for Reger's success is that he caught up with a good time when a person has a lot of money. In the early 1820s, due to the defeat of Napoleon; the British economy was growing steadily driven by manufacturing; the cost of living continued to decline; industrial workers'
Incomes are rising; the country as a whole is thriving.
This resulted in the continued decline of interest rates on government bonds, leaving people with a lot of spare money with no place to invest. At the same time, the collapse of the Spanish colonial empire suddenly led to the emergence of a number of emerging countries for investment, such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, etc.
It was this wave of "Latin American optimism" that McGregor took advantage of, and finally made a total profit of 1.3 million pounds (equivalent to 3.6 billion pounds today), and this was only in the UK, because after being exposed, he went to France to re-enter
Used old tricks to deceive
Although as a travelogue and promotional material, this book is a lie, but if you read it as a science fiction novel, it is still very good-looking, well-printed, beautifully bound, with fascinating text descriptions and high-quality illustrations
They are all good. It is probably for this reason that someone kept this book so that Heidi can buy it today.
Just when Tangning's mind was filled with random thoughts, Heidi suddenly asked: "Tony, do you think that if you were here at that time, would you have been deceived by Prince Boas?"
Tangning replied without hesitation: "How is this possible? How could someone as smart as me spend so much money just by listening to a few words from him and adding this picture album!"
Then he asked: "Where did you buy this book?"
"It's in Garris Bookstore. It seems they recently acquired a collection of books from a noble family, so there are a lot of rare books." Heidi replied casually.
Hearing the name "Garris Bookstore" brought back Tangning's memories. This is an old bookstore with a bit of history in New Orleans. Back then, she bought a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" from their home.
Woolen cloth.
As for this way of collecting books, it is actually quite common and sad. The parents and ancestors worked hard to collect the books bit by bit, but the descendants and grandchildren failed to live up to expectations and did not cherish them, so they sold them at low prices. Perhaps this can be regarded as a cycle of reincarnation.
So Tang Ning stood up and suggested, "I see, then why don't you go with me again and I'll pick out a few books?"
"Okay!" Heidi agreed happily.
When the two arrived at Garris Bookstore, they found that many people had come. It seemed that everyone was quite aware of collecting books. Tangning was not interested in ordinary Shakespeare, Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and the like. He wanted to find some books.
The most popular books are niche and interesting books like "Travel to the Kingdom of Boas".
After flipping through the pages for a while, Tangning was surprised to see a copy of "The Scholars" by Wu Jingzi. This shocked him because he never expected to see a thread-bound version of a Chinese novel in New Orleans. Speaking of which,
Do these Americans understand?
Just when Tang Ning was about to pick up the book "The Scholars", another hand happened to reach out. When the two hands touched, Tang Ning looked up and was shocked to find that it was Mr. Warner.
Before he could speak, Mr. Warner asked with a smile: "Mr. Tangning, do you also like this Chinese novel?"
Tangning nodded and replied, "Well, I have always liked Chinese culture very much. I even traveled to China a few months ago. I wonder if you like it too, Mr. Warner?"
"Actually, I went to China two years ago, and I also have this book "The Scholars" at home, but I didn't expect to see it here, so I was surprised and wanted to pick it up and read it. But since Mr. Tangning, you like it
, then you can just buy it!" Warner signaled.
"Then thank you, Mr. Warner!" Tangning thanked her while picking up "The Scholars". Then she remembered a question and asked, "Mr. Warner, in addition to "The Scholars", do you have other Chinese novels at home?
What?"
Warner nodded and replied: "Yes, I bought a lot of books when I went to China!"
Hearing this, Tang Ning regretted that she didn't bring a few books with her when she returned to China last time. Alas, she was tricked by this woman Bai Min. At this time, Warner invited: "Mr. Tang Ning, if you are interested, you are welcome to come and take a look."
!”
PS: There seems to be a debate between the two sides about whether Marco Polo ever visited China, but I am more inclined to think that the exaggerated part is that Marco Polo is deliberately trying to deceive people. Anyway, there were not many Italians at that time who could go to China, no matter what