Chapter 355 The Pit Is Getting Bigger

Abe Fusajiro was originally a Japanese textile giant who loved Chinese cultural relics. Although Japan has never acknowledged it, they are actually deeply influenced by Chinese culture, and many upper-class people cherish Chinese culture and cultural relics.

During World War II, Abe Fusajiro received a large number of orders from the military and made a lot of profits. During this period, Abe Fusajiro used his relationship with the military to purchase a large number of Chinese antique artworks looted by the military.

These include calligraphy and paintings by famous ancient Chinese calligraphers and painters, dozens of golden Buddhas from the Wanfo Tower in Jingxinzhai, Beihai, a large collection from Prince Gong's Palace, porcelain, gold wares, ivory carvings, etc.

The value is very high.

After Japan's defeat in the war, the situation of Abe Fusajiro Factory took a sharp turn for the worse. The textile factory was on the verge of bankruptcy. Without orders, it could not afford to keep its workers. More than 3,000 workers were laid off and the factory was in a state of suspension.

Later, Hardy came with seven major conglomerates, and Abe Fusajiro's textile factory was inevitably acquired. Although the Abe family retained a 15% stake and the factory resumed operation, the ownership was taken away by others and the management rights were also transferred to the Americans.

Now Abe Fusajiro stays at home every day doing nothing. Although he is nearly seventy years old, he is still restless. After reading an article in the newspaper about an antique mortgage financial investment company, he became interested.

He was unwilling to see the Japanese economy being completely controlled by the Americans.

He has a large number of antiques and may be able to make a profit in this way. Once he makes money, he hopes to start a new business and make the Abe family strong again.

He asked his son Kojiro Abe to find an antique mortgage financial investment company. When the business manager heard that the Abe family had a large number of antiques, he immediately brought people over.

All the antiques collected by Abe Fusajiro are fine pieces. There are special collection rooms and exhibition rooms for them. Abe Fusajiro's legs are not very good and his heart is not in good condition, so he needs to use a cane to walk. He brought his business manager and his team to his own exhibition room. Looking at the antique artworks displayed on the wall, he felt a little melancholy.

He never imagined that one day the Abe family would have to rely on selling antiques to make a living.

No,

Just mortgage.

These antiques will be taken back sooner or later!

Abe Fusajiro encouraged himself like this.

He pointed to a painting on the wall and introduced it, "This is a painting by Su Shi, a great writer of the Song Dynasty in China. It is called "Wood and Rock". There is also an inscription by the great calligrapher Mi Fu on it. It is extremely valuable. I bought it for 40,000 yen that year."

If Bai Juyi is ranked first among the Chinese literary giants that the Japanese love and admire the most, then Su Dongpo would definitely be ranked second.

The sales manager asked the expert behind him to come over and appraise the painting. After appraisal, the painting was confirmed to be authentic. Finally, the sales manager said: "We can price this painting at $2,500."

Abe Fusajiro was stunned and said with some annoyance, "If converted according to the exchange rate of that year, 2,500 US dollars is equivalent to 10,000 yen. I have collected it for so many years and now I have to pay so much money. No, the price you offer is too low."

The business manager stood up,

"Antiques are most valuable during stable periods. The prices of antiques on the market have dropped significantly now. This is normal. You have to know that many people in Japan are selling antiques at home to exchange for daily necessities, but there are very few buyers."

The business manager is telling the truth.

Chinese cultural relics are not popular in Europe. Europeans like European art, especially oil paintings. As for Americans, they are not interested in Eastern art either.

The market for Chinese cultural relics is still mainly domestic, but who cares about antiques in the current situation in the country? Japan has a large number of Chinese antiques, many of which were looted. Even some ordinary Japanese military officers have several dozen Chinese antiques in their homes.

During difficult times, many people sold their antiques to supplement their family income, but the sales were very poor. The main reason was that there were very few people with money to buy antiques, and everyone was having a hard time, so the prices were pushed down lower and lower.

There is no market for Chinese antiques at present. Financial companies pledging antiques is one of the few opportunities to realize cash on Chinese antiques.

"All right."

Abe Fusajiro gritted his teeth and accepted it. To be honest, he didn't have the capital to argue with others now.

Especially when the other party is American.

The Americans have been managing the Japanese for five years, implementing a high-pressure policy. Many Japanese have begun to fear the Americans from the bottom of their hearts. In many places, the Japanese have to be respectful even to an American homeless person.

Abe Fusajiro continued the introduction.

"This is Wang Wei's 'Fu Sheng Teaching Scriptures'. Wang Wei was a great poet and painter in the Tang Dynasty. This painting has a history of 1,400 years."

"This era is long, so let's give you $3,000," said the business manager.

Abe Fusajiro felt a pain in his heart. Is this kind of artwork only judged by the length of time? Americans are really uncultured.

"This is Zhang Sengyou's 'The Gods and Figures of the Five Stars and the Twenty-Eight Constellations'. Zhang Sengyou was a great painter during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. He is the one who is mentioned in the Chinese allusion of 'painting the dragon's eyes'."

"I've never heard of the term 'finishing touch'. How long was the Northern and Southern Dynasties?" the business manager asked the appraiser next to him.

The appraiser next to him quickly said, "It's several hundred years later than the Tang Dynasty."

"Then let's say $2,000," the business manager said straightforwardly.

Abe Fusajiro felt that he could no longer bear the grime and said to his son beside him, "Jiro, you can introduce the rest."

Kojiro took over and discussed the pricing with the appraiser's business manager. The Abe family's items were indeed very good, including "The Heavenly King Delivering a Child" by the painting saint Wu Daozi, "The Ming Concubine Leaving the Frontier" by Gong Suran, and "View of Rivers and Mountains from a Tower" by Yan Wengui.

Yi Yuanji's "Gathering of Monkeys", Zheng Sixiao's "Orchid Scroll", Wang Yuan's "Sparrows on Bamboo", Tang Yin's "A Branch of Spring", Jiang Tingxi's "Wild Flowers and Sparrows", Jin Tingbiao's "Auspicious Signs of Spring"...

There are more than 180 pieces of calligraphy and painting alone.

In addition, the porcelain collected by Abe Fusajiro is also very valuable, including Jun kiln, Ru kiln, and Ding kiln from the Song Dynasty, as well as fine imperial porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

There are more than 3,000 pieces of collections, including ivory carvings, wood carvings, Buddha statues, bronzes, and rare ancient books. The most expensive are calligraphy and paintings. Porcelain and ivory carvings cost about a few hundred dollars each, and rare ancient books are even cheaper.

Due to the large number of fine products, the final amount calculated was also very large, reaching a total of 2.3 million US dollars.

The sales manager didn't look surprised at all, as if he was used to seeing millions of dollars. He said to Abe Fusajiro, "Mr. Abe, your collection is estimated to be worth 2.3 million U.S. dollars. According to the bank's mortgage rules, you can mortgage 70% of the funds, which means you can get 1.61 million U.S. dollars."

Abe Fusajiro looked at the sales manager and asked, "Can I get this money directly? I plan to use it for other purposes."

The business manager shook his head vigorously, his face becoming somewhat ugly, and said, "That won't work. I can tell you that this business mainly depends on negotiations between our company and the bank to mortgage cash with the bank. We are an investment company, not a company that helps you apply for mortgage loans."

"I can tell you that apart from our company, no bank would use these cultural relics as collateral for loans, not even your local banks in Japan."

"In fact, these antiques have no value in our hands. We just found such collateral to stimulate the investment market."

"If you want to get cash, haha, then you can ask the bank yourself. I believe no bank will take this business."

The business manager was right. Abe had indeed asked his son to inquire with the bank. Using antiques as collateral might have been possible in the past, but no bank would do this business now, because banks have limited funds, most of which are invested in the real economy, which is much higher than the pitiful loan interest earned by investing in antiques.

Moreover, all banks are now under the control of seven major financial groups. If Hadi doesn't allow them to do it, no one dares to do it.

So now in the whole of Japan, only Wells Fargo Bank is doing this business.

"Okay, I'll mortgage it to your company." Abe Fusajiro nodded.

The business manager handed the contract over, and Abe Fusajiro took it and looked at it. He found that the contract stipulated that one had to invest in this financial company for more than two years before being able to withdraw cash, and there were no restrictions after that.

"Isn't this clause too overbearing?" Abe Fusajiro said, pointing at the clause.

"There's no other way. We need to prevent someone from using the loan platform to withdraw money. If someone is going to give up the antiques and just take the money, we will suffer a huge loss," said the business manager.

"Isn't it a mortgaged antique?"

"For our financial company, cash is above all else. These antiques are extremely difficult to sell. If the cash is gone, we will get a bunch of useless antiques and won't be able to continue our financial business. This is contrary to our original intention," said the business manager.

Abe Fusajiro also agreed with the other party that the most important thing for running a business is cash, isn't that what he is facing now?

If he didn't want cash, why would he mortgage the antiques?

Picking up the pen, Abe Fusajiro signed the contract. The Antique Mortgage Finance Company soon sent people over to carefully collect the Abe family's artworks one by one, put them in the safe and transported them away.

Abe Fusajiro then went to Wells Fargo Bank and signed the mortgage procedures, and everything was completed.

Back home.

Looking at the empty exhibition room and collection room, Abe Fusajiro felt very sad. "I hope everything goes well. If this investment is successful, it can help the Abe family accumulate capital for its resurgence."

"Don't worry, father. I've asked someone before. This company is very strong, and those antiques are mortgaged to the bank. Wells Fargo is the bank of Special Envoy Hardy, so there will definitely be no problem with them." Abe Fusajiro's son said with a smile.

......

Big businessman,

collector,

Even professors,

Many people have large collections of Chinese antiques.

Some people choose to hand over their antiques to investment companies for financial reasons, while others simply want to make money.

Life is not easy these days, and it is even very sad. Many people feel that they will lose out if they don't seize this opportunity to make money.

Antiques can’t escape anyway.

Newspapers reported that the U.S. stock market has been in a bull market in recent years, and experts analyzed that given the post-war economic boom in the United States, this bull market will continue for a long time.

Now there is no way to invest in Japan and they don't have the funds. Now there is such a great opportunity to use antiques as collateral and then invest in the US stock market to make money. Why not do it?

Therefore, many people have turned to mortgage companies and mortgaged their antiques to banks to help them invest.

It wasn't just these businessmen. Some members of the Japanese royal family and their families who had participated in the war of aggression against China and escaped also felt that this was an opportunity. Since they couldn't come forward, they asked their stewards or clan members to disguise themselves and find mortgage companies to make mortgage investments.

In fact, these people have a large number of antiques hidden in their homes. Back in China, they plundered everywhere like wild beasts, and after bringing them back to Japan, they became their property. The number of antiques they have is much more than those merchants.

There are actually other considerations behind their doing this. On the one hand, they can make money. On the other hand, they are actually always uneasy in their hearts, fearing that the Americans will settle accounts with them again one day.

If liquidated, these antiques will also be lost, so they are now mortgaged to the bank and invested in the US stock market. They can make money now, and after two years when they can withdraw funds freely, they plan to transfer part of the funds to other places.

Leaving it in the United States, or in the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you can also leave some money for your family and descendants.

Hardy thought they were right.