"Are you serious about buying another ship for transport? The current shipping routes are very dangerous. German submarines are elusive and can be easily sunk without a fleet escort." Brigadier General Jackson was surprised when he heard Fang Lang's idea of buying a transport ship himself.
"My plan is to have my transport ship move along with the escort fleet, which will be safer. I wonder if Uncle Jackson has any suitable ships to sell to me now." Fang Lang knew that it was not impossible to buy ships outside, but the price of purchasing captured ships from Brigadier General Jackson would definitely be cheaper than buying them directly on the market.
"We do have a few transport ships captured from the enemy, but their tonnage is not as large as the Liberty Ships, and the largest one has a load capacity of only 5,000 tons. If you are sure you want to buy them, I will have my subordinates check and select a suitable ship for you. But the price of the ships is not cheap! At least 50,000 US dollars per ship." Brigadier General Jackson naturally had no objection to Fang Lang buying the transport ships from the US military. Now, due to the shortage of US military crews, some transport ships were idle.
The US military did not dare to use Italian crew members. First, they were afraid that spies would sneak into the fleet and pass fleet information to the Germans. Second, the Italians were resistant to participating in fleets for military purposes.
"Uncle Jackson is so kind. Can I buy one ship for $50,000? Then I'll take three first. I will pay $55,000 for each ship. I will pay $50,000 to the U.S. Navy Department, and the other $5,000 will be paid to Mrs. Jackson's personal account in the form of consulting fees by Global Trade Import and Export Co., Ltd. in the United States." Although a second-hand freighter at $50,000 is not particularly cheap, Fang Lang will not give up such a good opportunity to further deepen his relationship with Commodore Jackson by purchasing a freighter.
Commodore Jackson obviously didn't expect Fang Lang to do such a thing, and he obviously didn't know how to respond for a while. After a long while, he looked at Fang Lang deeply and said, "If you buy three ships, it will really help us reduce a lot of burden. How about this! I will lower the price to 45,000 US dollars per ship of 5,000 tons."
"Thank you, Uncle Jackson, for taking care of my nephew. In this case, I will pay 45,000 US dollars to the US Navy for each ship, and Mrs. Jackson's consulting fee is 10,000 US dollars. I wonder if Uncle Jackson thinks it is appropriate!" Fang Lang heard Commodore Jackson's answer and obviously agreed with his idea. This is much simpler. As long as Commodore Jackson accepts the consulting fee this time, many things will be easy to solve in the future.
"The consulting fee of $10,000 per ship is too high. Let's go with $5,000! We can't let you suffer too much. It's not easy for young people to start a business. I will arrange for the Navy to select the newest and best three ships to deliver to you, and will conduct a comprehensive inspection of your ship and hand it over to you after filling it with fuel." Commodore Jackson is obviously a good partner who will do things for money. He is very considerate. Anyway, he doesn't have to pay for these things. The US government will pay for them.
"Thank you so much, Uncle Jackson. I wonder if I can have my own warehouse in the Navy warehouse. I have some goods that need to be stored, but I'm worried that it will be unsafe to leave them outside, so I want to rent a warehouse in the Navy warehouse to store the goods."
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This kind of small matter was nothing to Brigadier General Jackson, so he directly arranged for Fang Lang: "I will inform our naval logistics department to allocate an extra warehouse to your Brazilian Expeditionary Force, but this warehouse will not be notified to your Brazilian Expeditionary Force. You will sign for it on behalf of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force Navy. Do you understand?"
"Uncle Jackson, I hope you can continue to help me keep an eye out for some high-quality ships. Don't worry, I will pay for each ship according to the current price. In addition, I wonder if you can provide five passes to facilitate our vehicles to enter and exit the military camp and transport goods." Fang Lang's demand for ships is naturally the more the better. After the end of World War II, the economy recovered rapidly. The United States was about to start the Marshall Plan for Europe to help Europe rebuild its economic order.
At this time, having a large fleet in hand would make Fang Lang rich. In this way, Fang Lang quickly reached a strategic partnership with Brigadier General Jackson. After leaving the office, Fang Lang went directly to the logistics storage area and received a warehouse that nominally belonged to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force but actually belonged to him. The warehouse area was more than 1,000 square meters, and the height of the warehouse was more than 10 meters.
When Fang Lang and the crew of the Charles Joss moved all the goods into the warehouse, they were unable to fill a quarter of it. When Boyan Gambino and his men drove five trucks and followed Fang Lang into the military restricted area, they were shocked and did not dare to have any bad thoughts.
After completing the transaction, the Gambino family directly deposited one million US dollars into Fang Lang's account at the Bank of America. The predecessor of the Bank of America was the Bank of Italy in 1904, and it was renamed the Bank of America after merging with the Bank of California in 1929. Therefore, it is very convenient to carry out deposit and withdrawal business in the United States and Italy.
The remaining 375,000 US dollars was delivered to Fang Lang in cash. When Fang Lang placed more than 150,000 US dollars in front of the crew of the Charles Joes, the shock to the crew was unprecedented, especially among them were several captains of other ships invited by Captain Cross.
When Fang Lang returned three times the profit to the crew members according to their investment amounts, the atmosphere reached a peak.
"Brothers, thank you all for your support in this business. We have achieved a complete victory. Because I have completed the assessment on board, I will not be able to go through life and death on the same ship with you in the future. But I will not forget my friendship with you, nor will I forget your help to me. Therefore, I decided to share this channel for making money with you. I wonder if you want it." After distributing the profits, Fang Lang began an exciting speech. Of course, the purpose was to let the crew continue to give him a steady supply of cigarettes.
“I want it, I want it…” Everyone shouted in unison, their voices almost breaking through the deck.
Fang Lang quickly pressed his hands down, signaling everyone to keep a low profile.
After everyone's voices quieted down, he said, "I know everyone is very excited and wants to get rich, but I still want to make it clear to everyone. First of all, we are transporting the goods to Italy for sale by private smuggling, so everyone should be low-key and not attract the attention of the gendarmerie and the bigwigs of the Navy. Second, because this kind of carrying of goods requires everyone to bear the risks themselves, just like this time, you all pay for it yourself, get the delivery certificate from the Italian branch of Global Trade Import and Export Co., Ltd., and go to the New York Terminal Office of the headquarters of New York Global Trade Import and Export Co., Ltd. to pick up the goods. The amount of goods to be picked up depends on your own economic strength and transportation strength. After transporting all the goods to Italy, store them in the warehouse of Global Trade Company in the storage area of the terminal. After inspection, you can directly get three times the payment for the goods. Do you understand?"
"I understand! But we don't know where these two companies are! We are on a tight schedule and don't have much time to look for the addresses of these two companies!" Someone spoke up soon.
"This time! I will help you deliver the Italian branch's bill of lading to the dock later. As for the New York dock office, it is also easy to find. You can find it more than 100 meters after leaving the dock. Of course, if you don't want to find it even after more than 100 meters, then I can only say that you should just watch your brothers get rich! Money is not your destiny."
Everyone laughed.
Now Fang Lang only needs to register a branch in Italy and recruit good personnel to build the cigarette import and export channel from the United States to Italy.
Once its own fleet grows in the future, this company will take off rapidly.
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