Britain had once boasted a 7% growth rate after conquering India. How much would America grow if it fully absorbed the Chinese Republic? Such expectations fueled the unrelenting optimism coursing through the stock market.
For the Americans, the concept of short selling was alien. Beyond the occasional manipulation of failing companies by financial predators, the practice had been almost nonexistent for decades. During the Long Depression, stocks neither rose nor fell—they simply stagnated. But in recent years, nearly every company had seen their share prices soar.
Between 1900 and 1905, the total market capitalization of stocks had more than doubled. And this was just the beginning; America's foothold in the Chinese Republic was still in its infancy. What would happen if they extended their reach to the neighboring nations, to the crumbling Qing Empire, or even to Korea? Many financiers fantasized about a future where the wealth of the entire world poured into the United States.
