On June 3, 1927, on Fifth Avenue in New York, a marching column composed of nearly a thousand textile workers held high banners of 'Anti-Layoff' and 'Anti-Pay Cut', shouting slogans while marching forward.

Although the New York police looked like they were facing a formidable enemy, they did not attack the marching column as usual. The chiefs of various New York police precincts had received warnings from above: 'Do not interfere unless workers smash and loot.' With orders from above, the marching workers, who should have been suppressed, successfully ended the march and returned home intact.

Various newspapers in the United States reported on the march because such textile worker marches occurred not only in New York but also in areas with developed textile industries like Chicago and Philadelphia.

On June 5, *The Wall Street Journal* published news that Michael, Chairman of the US Textile Association, invited economic experts from the Morgan Consortium, Rockefeller Consortium, and the Chicago School to hold a symposium on the Sino-US trade war in New York on June 8. The Wall Street Journal stated, 'Our newspaper will pay close attention to this meeting and report the progress of the meeting in a timely manner...'

Not only *The Wall Street Journal*, but newspapers like *USA Weekly* (possibly *Time* or similar) and *The New York Times* all expressed they would follow up. On June 7, several cars drove into the luxurious front square of the (Old) Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Reporters lying in ambush nearby swarmed up. Even if the bodyguards immediately stepped forward to block them, they couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the reporters.

The car door opened, and a representative of the Morgan Consortium stepped out. Seeing that it wasn't the head of the Morgan Consortium but still an important member of the Morgan family, reporters immediately shouted, "Mr. Morgan, I heard that you are preparing a plan to fully control the Federal Reserve. Is there such a thing?"

The member of the Morgan Consortium, who had long been besieged by the media, did not answer at all. He knew these reporters came prepared. No matter how he answered, even if he denied it immediately, the news headline would be 'Morgan Consortium's XX says we have no plan to fully control the Federal Reserve!'

In subsequent reports, the media would state '...After the failure of the Morgan Consortium's nth plan to control the Federal Reserve, the Morgan Consortium believes that now is not the time for the next move. But with economic turmoil, the Morgan Consortium's next action is being prepared...'

To deal with media attacks, the Morgan Consortium also kept its own media. So after this Morgan walked out of the reporters' encirclement, he said in front of the hotel gate, "We are holding this meeting to discuss the economic and trade relations between the United States and China, as well as the impact of this dispute on the United States..."

Just as he said this, a commotion appeared in the reporter crowd. Several KKK members wearing iconic robes and pointed triangular hoods, leaving holes only for eyes, nose, and mouth, entered through the gate. The KKK's base camp was in the American South, and KKK members dressing like this usually meant they were prepared to cause destruction or lynching. It was indeed uncommon to run out dressed like this in broad daylight. Some reporters who feared the world would not be chaotic enough even expected this group of KKK members to conflict directly with the representative of the Morgan Consortium.

However, the representative of the Morgan Consortium had no intention of looking for trouble. He turned and walked into the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. According to American law and tradition, the Waldorf, this luxury hotel, could completely shut out anyone they didn't want to receive.

Seeing so many reporters gathering around, the KKK members were really excited and shouted to the reporters, "America is the white man's America; colored people get out!"

Hearing this clichéd slogan, the reporters lost interest. The KKK always used this set when making trouble. After shouting for half a century, reporters really didn't want to have any communication with this group of guys on such clichés.

Every distinguished guest who arrived later was besieged by the media, but none expressed any attitude. Except for those few KKK members standing all alone, shouting a few slogans, and being watched by the police, the interviews had no actual content. It could only be confirmed that the previous report of *The Wall Street Journal* was correct; executives and scholars from the Morgan Consortium, Rockefeller Consortium, US Textile Association, and futures companies had arrived.

On June 8, the meeting officially began. The first to speak was an executive from the futures market. There are several futures markets in the United States, the most famous being naturally the Chicago Futures Market. The executive looked serious because, in the past period, the futures market had been fluctuating. Cotton prices jumped up and down; speculators saw opportunities, and bulls and bears engaged in fierce fighting, making cotton futures prices nearly crazy.

The futures market executive did not start from this chaos, but from He Rui's unification of China in 1924. The attendees were all knowledgeable, but they were also somewhat surprised.

"...By 1924, Japan could have surpassed the United States in yarn and cloth production, but with the end of China's unification war, the Japanese economy plummeted, and the textile industry was also hugely affected, shrinking on a large scale..."

In 1890, British cotton yarn production was 42.4 million spindles (US/Japan only 14 million/280,000 spindles). At the end of the 19th century, the raw material cotton for the British textile industry was mainly imported in large quantities from Indian colonies, having a relative advantage of low cost. But as the outbreak of WWI plunged British exports into a slump, coupled with labor costs and relative scarcity of raw materials, textile industrial production was gradually undertaken by the United States, which had ample labor and abundant resources. In the 1920s, US cotton yarn production accounted for more than 50% of the world.

Japan was also catching up. In 1920, cotton yarn production reached 38.14 million spindles (only 1.14 million spindles in 1900). It could have surpassed the United States in 1927, but affected by the war and the interruption of Sino-Japanese trade, the Japanese textile industry was basically cut in half.

In 1924, the He Rui government grasped power in China and recovered sovereignty in the unification war. With Britain's blockade of China, China's textile industry was no longer subjected to foreign dumping. Coupled with the industrial accumulation of the He Rui government in the Northeast, whether it was the self-production rate of textile machinery or the stable construction of the internal market, all promoted explosive growth in China's textile industry.

"...According to the Chinese government work report, in 1926, China's cotton yarn production was 39.17 million spindles. Due to the huge domestic market in China, all were sold domestically. Moreover, this scale is not the end of China's textile industry production. Judging by population, China's market capacity can easily reach 100 million spindles of textile cotton yarn."

After recounting the general development context, the futures market executive picked up his water glass and drank. The reason he was invited was to provide precise data. explaining these data clearly took considerable effort.

The participants were all very sensitive to numbers. Even those who initially knew little about Sino-US textile trade understood the relationship between Sino-US cotton and textile trade after hearing this.

After drinking water, the US futures market executive hung up a topographic map of China, briefly introduced China's geography, and then talked about China's cotton planting, "...Currently, in China's cotton planting, large-scale cotton fields only appear in areas controlled by the Northeast Government. According to Chinese tradition, cotton cloth is produced and sold by themselves; farmers plant a small patch of cotton and spin and weave the harvested cotton by hand. According to the survey of Chinese resources, China's cotton planting is still dominated by Indian short-staple cotton. The He Rui government promoted long-staple cotton in the Northeast. Due to insufficient information, the planting area of Chinese long-staple cotton cannot be judged. However, what is certain is that after introducing long-staple cotton, China's seed improvement work is ongoing. It can be roughly assumed that China already possesses long-staple cotton suitable for the Chinese climate. In addition, China purchased the patent for zippers, and at this stage, China's zipper production is abnormally high."

Hearing this, the representative of DuPont looked even more serious. China not only had high zipper production but also produced chemical fiber products, and China's sock production was also extraordinarily high. This made DuPont, which was also engaged in chemical fiber products, feel the pressure of Made in China as a competitor.

Although these investigation reports had been provided to these prominent figures in the economic circle yesterday, simply reading these reports was really boring. It was much better to have someone introduce them.

An introduction lasting more than an hour was indeed a bit outrageous in length, but China's development indeed had many uncommon situations, and the attendees did not feel the introduction was boring.

When the introduction was over, Michael, Chairman of the US Textile Association and initiator of the meeting, said, "Gentlemen, if there are no questions, the next topic will discuss the situation of textiles. Let's take a break now."

With so much information poured in, the upper-class people indeed needed a break. Rockefeller was smoking in the luxurious lounge of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a model of luxury hotels. The representative of the DuPont Consortium walked to the sofa beside Rockefeller and sat down. "Does the Soviet side have intelligence on China's petrochemical industry?"

The cooperation between the Rockefeller Consortium and the Soviet Union was quite alternative. Originally, among the people Rockefeller knew, there were Lenin's childhood friends and playmates. The Rockefeller Consortium, engaged in oil and heavy industry, also received recognition from Soviet leader Stalin and signed agreements. Even so, the Rockefeller family took huge risks. Therefore, Rockefeller did not really want to answer the question from the DuPont family representative.

But business is business. Rockefeller asked, "What do you want to know?"

"If it's what I want to know, I will repay you." The DuPont family representative answered. In American culture, everything is tradable. Saying 'repay' upfront, the DuPont family had already shown an attitude of cooperation.

Since there would be gains, Rockefeller answered, "Give me a list of questions."

Although everything is tradable, it doesn't mean Rockefeller has to trade. The reason for being so straightforward was that Rockefeller knew very well that whether it was himself or the DuPont family, they were very unfamiliar with the Chinese market. Cooperation between the two families now meant mutual help in the future.

After reaching a verbal agreement, the DuPont family representative changed the subject to something else. "I heard a rumor that China obtained technology from Carnegie. I wonder if it's true."

Because the Rockefeller family wanted to get involved in the steel business, they had crossed swords with Steel King Carnegie. In the end, the Rockefeller family bought the iron mines supplying Carnegie Steel Company but did not enter the steel production industry. And Carnegie bought iron ore from mines controlled by the Rockefeller family. So the DuPont family asked the right person. Rockefeller paid attention to China not only because he wanted to sell more oil to China but also because China's steel industry developed very rapidly. Especially the development and application of I-beam rolling was impressive.

Steel King Carnegie was considered to have extremely high talent in the steel field. Rockefeller was not surprised by such rumors. He had also asked Carnegie similar questions.

Having received a clear answer, Rockefeller replied, "Absolutely not."

Hearing this answer, the representative of the DuPont family did not press or question. He said, "It seems there are quite excellent engineers in China."

Carnegie had said similar things to Rockefeller. For an industrial country, I-beams and the like had no secrecy value at all. As long as experienced engineers looked at them a few times, or even without touching, they would know what was going on. If engineers touched them a few times, the principles would be extremely clear.

But this premise lies in having experienced and excellent engineers first. The general impression China gave the United States was a lack of engineers, and even more a lack of a scientific system. China's development in the steel industry meant China had a team of excellent engineers for steel production and use.

Rockefeller believed that the DuPont family suspected China possessed a group of very strong chemical industry experts, which led to outstanding performance in many chemical fields. Although such judgment conformed to the basic principles of industrial development, China possessing such a group of engineers made the consortium leaders of the United States, a powerful industrial country, feel it was unreal.

If they were to admit such a situation, it meant American consortium leaders must define China as an 'industrial country'. China was a big country, even a strong country, but had never been considered an industrial country.

The break time ended quickly. As the staff came to invite attendees to enter, all seats in the conference room were filled again. This time it was Textile Association Chairman Michael's turn to speak. Rockefeller didn't know if Michael hadn't played with women or ate very well; in short, Michael looked in good spirits at this time.

"Gentlemen, I don't like to mention international politics during discussions. Politics is inherently dirty, international politics especially so; one can even use evil to describe international politics." Michael's opening remarks were straightforward and triggered a burst of good-natured laughter. Because Michael was right.

"However, the current problem forces us to mention international politics. It is said that Japan may ally with China. Japan has always been a big customer of our United States. Now China's textile industry is developing very fast. Maybe in a few years, more than half of the world's cotton yarn will be produced in the factories of these two countries. Then, I think the current Sino-US relationship will make us lose money, and possibly very much money."

Many of the attendees nodded slightly. Everyone came to hold such a meeting not just to understand how much loss the current situation would bring them, because everyone knew very well that the trade interruption caused by the Sino-US trade war had already brought losses. Everyone wanted to know how large the scope of the loss would be, and more importantly, if the situation did not improve, how large the potential future loss would be. So the attendees listened seriously to Chairman Michael's speech.