Chapter 744 The Happy Times of the Profligate Merchants (Fourth Update, Please Subscribe)
The safe zone is very safe.
There are thousands of police officers maintaining public order here. There is no need to worry about Western soldiers appearing out of nowhere, nor is there any need to worry about Westerners breaking into homes in the middle of the night and dragging women out, or about them being raped in front of men.
In the midst of war, such a place is simply a paradise, but this paradise is very crowded. After all, this area only occupies less than one-third of Tokyo, but now more than 300,000 people are crammed in. Hundreds of thousands of refugees can only live in shacks on the roadside and endure the biting cold.
Although Takahashi Korekiyo earned more than 100 yuan a month, he was still shocked by the high rent when looking for a place to live.
"What a jerk! It's just an attic. It used to cost only one or two yuan, but now it costs ten yuan."
"Oh, there's nothing we can do. With so many people pushing their way in, of course they'll take the opportunity to raise the price."
"Alas, the guys who profit from the country's misfortune are truly heartless!"
"Or let's go to school and have a look!"
While Takahashi Korekiyo and his students were looking for a place to stay, in a yard by the road, Sun Zhen was talking about business with a few people in a cheerful manner. As an overseas Chinese, he did not originally have a house here, because after the people in this area evacuated, many houses became empty. Some overseas Chinese who evacuated to the safe zone could occupy those empty houses and open shops with the permission of the consulate.
The businessman Sun Zhen was also a temporary guest star. He originally was engaged in the "worker-bringing" business, recruiting female workers from Japan to the Ming Dynasty. After Tokyo was occupied by Britain and the United States, he saw a business opportunity.
In fact, business opportunities are everywhere in the safe zone. After all, there are too many people gathered here. Moreover, in order to ensure the safety of the residents, people are usually allowed to enter but not leave the safe zone to prevent resistance personnel from using the safe zone as a shelter.
This also led to an extreme shortage of daily necessities for the Japanese in the safe zone. Food and various supplies were what the Japanese in the safe zone needed. At this time, only expatriates could enter and exit the safe zone with their passports.
"Mr. Sun, as long as you bring the grain in, I will give you a 60% increase on the purchase price!"
Taro Harada gave his offer directly.
"One times, Mr. Harada. The price of grain in the market is already three times higher than before. Give me 60%... Your profit is far greater than mine!"
Sun Zhen shook his head and refused.
"I'm taking a huge risk if I leave the safe zone!"
"Mr. Sun, you can go directly to collect the food with the purchase order. I'm just borrowing your identity..."
Taro Harada looked at Sun Zhen with envy. They looked the same, but Sun Zhen had a Ming Dynasty passport.
"A Ming passport is worth a ton of gold!"
Sun Zhen said with great emotion.
"If that doesn't work, then Mr. Harada, please find someone else. I believe there will be many people here who are willing to do this business."
There are more than a lot of them, they can almost fill up an entire street. After all, the number of Ming Dynasty expatriates in Tokyo does not exceed three digits at most. Now they are the only ones who can enter and exit the safe zone freely with their passports, and they don't need to worry about being attacked by foreigners.
"Oh, Mr. Sun, you're putting me in a difficult position! How about... 40% to 60%?"
"It's fifty-fifty, in addition to food, I can also bring in other goods, and then we can trade directly on the Edogawa River. You can earn at least tens of thousands of yuan for one shipload of goods!"
You earn more!
Taro Harada said with envy and jealousy in his heart.
But no matter how envious and jealous he is, it’s useless because he doesn’t have that passport!
For small traders, they just rely on the convenience of passports to trade in goods there, but for big businessmen, in fact, Li Chenggong is not a big businessman. He is just a manager of a trading company that specializes in selling Ming Dynasty goods to Japan. After Tokyo was occupied, he sold the goods in the warehouse on credit to Ming Dynasty employees with a 50% markup. The employees then sold them to Japanese businessmen at a higher price. After everyone made a fortune.
They started trading Japanese yen there again. In the safe zone, nothing could be bought with Japanese yen banknotes, and no merchant was willing to accept Japanese yen banknotes. After all, with the Meiji government fleeing Tokyo, the credit of the banknotes naturally plummeted. However, the pockets of the Japanese were filled with Japanese yen banknotes.
When the government was almost collapsing, most Japanese people thought that these banknotes were like waste paper, so Li Chenggong specially set up an exchange office to buy Japanese yen at a lower price, reducing ten yen to about two or three yen, and then transporting them back to Yokohama.
As usual, Li Chenggong, who was carrying a box of Japanese yen banknotes, had just left the safe zone when six Japanese followed him. They were the bodyguards he hired.
"Mr. Li, please get in the car."
After getting on the rickshaw, Li Chenggong asked.
"Have you bought your train tickets?"
"Yes sir, it has been bought."
Muto Ichiro, who was running behind the rickshaw, answered as he ran.
Although there is a train between Tokyo and Yokohama, not everyone can buy a train ticket. After all, the Westerners now control the station, and only foreigners with passports can leave Tokyo by train. Of course, this is also for the Westerners' own safety considerations. They are worried that the Japanese will kill their soldiers and leave here by train.
Therefore, only foreign nationals can buy tickets freely, otherwise they need special passes.
It is precisely under these restrictions that Li Chenggong is able to do this business.
This business was very simple. He only needed to exchange the Japanese banknotes at a very low price at the exchange office in the safe zone, and then take them to Yokohama. He could then exchange them for Ming Dynasty banknotes or silver coins at a one-to-one exchange rate at the bank there.
This is naked currency speculation.
Why is it that now that the Meiji government has collapsed, the Japanese yen can be freely converted in Yokohama?
This is the subtlety of the international economy. Because Japan did not collapse economically, those who only had daimyo passports in the safety zone could become nouveau riche overnight if they used their brains a little.
Of course, everyone knows that all this will eventually come to an end, so every time Li Chenggong boards the train from Tokyo to Yokohama, he always has a thought in his mind.
"Maybe this is the last time!"
Why do you think so? Because everyone knows that the war will end one day and the safe zone will be withdrawn one day.
When everything is over, it will naturally be impossible to continue this speculative business.
But one thing is certain: the spring of 1875 was definitely the happiest time for unscrupulous businessmen. In just less than two months, hundreds of millionaires emerged in Tokyo's safety zone, and most of them were Ming people.
So decades later, some successful Ming merchants would recall this short period of time in their memoirs with a nostalgic tone. For them, this seemingly short period of time was undoubtedly a happy one...
(End of this chapter)
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