Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 217 All middlemen deserve to die!

"Has the Imagawa clan really backed down like this?"

The cargo ship carrying Hirashima Kichijiro and other Wanzubo lords slowly sailed into Puquan Port. Apart from some of the Lang party members boarding the ship to inspect it, they did not encounter any difficulties or pay any taxes or fees. It was as easy and pleasant as returning home.

"He must have chickened out!"

"Why did you chicken out?"

"I was ready to go and help out at the time. I'm not afraid of dying, I'm just afraid of being stuck with the goods..."

The shop owners were still discussing things after they stepped onto the dock. They were even a little disappointed that a fight hadn't broken out. But they were there to do business, so after a little regret, they dispersed in twos and threes to get on with their own business. After all, they needed to ship their goods and also inspect the local products to avoid returning empty-handed.

Hirashima Kichijiro and a few other close friends gathered together and first observed the prices in the port town of Puquan Port. They were shocked by what they saw, and after a moment they couldn't help but beam with joy - the price of ironware in Tōtōmi was so high, the retail price was more than 70% higher than in Wanjin.

The price has already increased by 70% after only a few days of operation. If it continues for another month, the price will...

I don’t dare to think about it! I don’t dare to think about it!
No wonder those ship merchants always go to Atsuta Port to pick up goods. Is it really that profitable to do maritime trade?
Damn it, most of the money we made before was earned by those middlemen!

A group of them gathered there examining the ironware, chasing after the young shopkeeper to inquire about prices. The headman of the merchant house was immediately alerted. After coming out from his seat, he noticed their strange attire and immediately had an idea. He politely asked, "Are you merchants from Wanjin?"

Hirashima Yoshijiro, holding the position of "parliamentarian," was the de facto leader of the group and naturally stepped forward to answer, politely saying, "That's right, we are from Wanjin. Sir, has the price of ironware in Puquan always been...always this price?"

As the foreman gestured for them to sit on the ground, he chuckled, "Of course not. The price only came down last year; it used to be much more expensive."

Hirashima Kichijiro and his companions exchanged glances and nodded in understanding. They guessed that this was due to the influence of Wanjin. The Chita Peninsula had seen a significant increase in iron production since last year, and in order to exchange for food to cope with the famine, they were holding a fire sale. As a result, the iron price at Atsuta Port was halved again and again. Puquan Port was not far from Atsuta Port, and the price there was estimated to have been halved as well.

Even if the price is halved, they would still make a fortune if they could earn 70% more. Even if the price were increased by 10% based on the price at Atsuta Port, they would still make a profit. The main reason they couldn't sell in Wanjin and Atsuta Port was that they couldn't compete with the "state-owned factories" in Wanjin. The "state-owned factories" dared not make money, but they couldn't.

Hirashima Kichijiro immediately asked, "Sir, is your shop willing to buy ironware? How much can you buy?"

We need to ask them first. Owari and Okinozu have basically abolished the "zato system" and no longer need temples to grant them exclusive operating licenses, but they are not clear about the situation in Tōtōmi. We must ask them first.

If the other side brings out a temple, then they will need to bring out the wilderness to counter it in order to successfully ship the goods.

However, they were overthinking it. The iron production in Tomiyo was extremely low, and ironware itself was imported from places like the East Sea, East Mountain, and Hokuriku. There were no temples or businesses dealing in ironware here. Moreover, the head of the garrison was already prepared and knew that they were there to sell goods, so he immediately asked, "How much can you supply?"

"We have as many as you want!" Hirashima Kichijiro said without hesitation. At worst, they could go back and expand production. However, they still needed to negotiate the price properly. It would be good to earn an extra coin.

The two sides immediately discussed the price for a long time. The host even invited the homeowner and several of his close colleagues, just so that the more food the diners ate, the cheaper it would be. He really did his best to haggle over every penny. He also treated them to Yuanjiang's specialties—Yuanjiang tea and Yuanjiang mandarin oranges—and gave each of them a piece of "Yuanjiang coarse silk".

Hirashima Kichijiro and the others thought that the local products of Tōtōmi were good and could be taken back to Wanjin to sell, or even sold to Owari, Mino and Mikawa. In any case, Haruno had secured an exemption from the "ship closure fee" for them, so their costs were definitely lower than others and they could not possibly lose money.

Both sides made a great profit and felt an instant connection, chatting happily and signing a contract immediately. They then went to a banquet together, drank some wine, and the merchants even spent a lot of money to hire geisha to accompany them, claiming that the geisha of Totomi were also exceptional and not much inferior to those of Sunpu.

This startled Hirashima Yoshijiro and his group. The crackdown on prostitution in Wanjin was very intense, and they were unsure whether they would be held accountable for soliciting prostitutes in Tōtōmi. With such a lucrative future beckoning, no one wanted to risk such trouble, so they quickly withdrew.

However, this did not dampen their excitement. They were still discussing it when they returned to the ship, saying that they would organize the unloading the next day, return to the ship empty, and then rush back to accelerate production so that they could fill the ship as soon as possible, catch up with the main force, and continue exploring eastward. These people were planning to form an alliance, merge several workshops, and work together. This time, one of them would go back to take charge of production, one would stay on the road, and the rest would continue eastward with the main force to sign more contracts.

It won't delay anything. The main force is moving very slowly, exploring as they go, and they have to stop at each place for several days. They can keep up by going back and forth behind them.

The group grew increasingly excited as they talked, and one of them, emboldened by alcohol, exclaimed, "So this is how easy it is to make money outside! How come we never noticed before?"

“We couldn’t have earned this money before. Without Lord Nohara leading us, it would have been difficult for us to even get here. We wouldn’t even have had the money to rent a boat. Even if we had made it, the Imagawa family would probably have ripped us off, and we definitely wouldn’t have earned this much.”

"His Highness is a good person..." "Should we donate some military supplies to His Highness?"

“I think it’s a good idea. We can’t be ignorant about money just because we’ve made some. If we don’t spend a penny, people will laugh at us.”

“Your Highness’s navy is the key. Without it, we wouldn’t have been able to travel this far, and Puquan Port wouldn’t have exempted us from paying the port fees. In the future, we will still need Your Highness’s navy to deter the pirates along the way. When we make money in the future, we should buy ships and give them to Your Highness. This is better than giving money directly.”

"Then why not invest in Wanjin Shipyard, or find a way to commission those shipyards to hire some craftsmen from other places who can build large ships, just like Mr. Okabe."

"That's a good idea. We'll need a lot of cargo ships in the future, so investing in a shipyard would be a good idea!"

Fueled by alcohol, the shopkeepers rambled on and on, feeling more and more exhilarated than ever before in business. Back on the boat, they found things even more absurd. The wine sellers, cloth sellers, and salt sellers were all more excited than they were, discussing how much easier it was to make money outside than in Wanjin, and that they should have come out long ago. They also took the opportunity to criticize the middlemen for selling their goods at such high prices outside.

The consensus is that we must build ships, and build as many ships as possible!

The Wanjin navy doesn't have an absolute advantage over the Imagawa navy right now. This won't do. We must build a massive fleet so that no one will dare to even glance at the Wanjin navy once it sets sail. They also need a large number of cargo ships. Their money can no longer be earned by middlemen; they must earn it themselves.

Similarly, many people were also making arrangements to travel back in empty boats to transport goods.

…………

The workshop owners of Wanjin were making a ruckus on the boat, forming cliques. Aman had also compiled a list of prices in Puquan Port, and even a rough count of the supply contracts signed between the Wanjin workshop owners and local merchants that day—the “survival community” had been living off the funds for so many years and was still quite supportive.

After finishing the tally, Aman was shocked by today's profits. After all, direct sales from the factory were definitely cheaper than those from middlemen, and local merchants would not let such an opportunity pass by. They were buying up goods by the ship, and the port of Puquan alone had swallowed up a third of the fleet's cargo—that's more than thirty fully loaded ships.

She couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Is maritime trade really that profitable?"

Yuan Ye glanced at the list and laughed, "Of course, maritime trade is profitable. Otherwise, why would so many people risk their lives to dive into the sea? It's just that ordinary people aren't qualified to get involved in this business."

This is nothing. Take the Age of Exploration for example. If a merchant ship traveling from Europe to South America had a profit of less than 10000%, or less than 100 times, it would be considered a failure. And now, we're not far from Wanjin, and the average profit is only around 75%. In the world of legitimate maritime merchants, that would be a laughing stock.

What I'm earning now is just a pittance.

Or rather, the more you travel in maritime trade, the more you earn, sometimes even more than you earn, with the rate of return increasing exponentially.

Aman couldn't think that far ahead. She was already extremely satisfied with a 75% return. After all, these workshop owners were involved in mutual exploitation between Wanjin and the "state-owned factory." Some of them had already gone so far as to stop making money and were just barely hanging on. Some, like Hirashima Kichijiro, would have died if Haruno hadn't lent them a hand.

Let them make money like this for a few years, then we can just slap a label on them, arrest them, and confiscate their property. Wouldn't that make Wanjin rich?

She mentally fabricated charges against these future wealthy businessmen for a while, feeling that the future looked promising. Then, after thinking for a moment, she asked Haruno, "It seems that after visiting the three ports of the Imagawa family, they have basically sold most of their goods. Should we continue heading east?"

“Yes!” Haruno didn’t hesitate. He had calculated it privately before and said directly, “Those workshops all need to expand. In the future, the two countries of Tōtōmi and Sūfu alone will not be enough to dump their products. Moreover, the cargo of these nearly one hundred ships is enough for the merchants in these three ports to consume for several months. In order to make it circulate, we need to go to the easternmost point of the main island to barely make it enough. The safest way is to go around the eastern end of the main island to Kansai. But Ishiyama Hongan-ji is not easy to deal with. Let’s go to the easternmost point first and see what the situation is like.”

Aman nodded gently. Since she was already out there, she didn't mind spending a few more months at sea, since she didn't have to row, raise the sails, or clean the deck.

The matter was settled, but things are always simple in theory but quite complicated in practice. Haruno stayed in Shimizu Bay for more than ten days before he finally completed the alliance with Puquan Port, Shimizu Port, and Sunpu Port. He and the Imagawa family became allies again. The Imagawa family promised to open their ports (actually markets) to him for free, and he promised never to attack the Imagawa family's territory in any form. In addition, he would provide the Imagawa family with a certain amount of gunpowder and arquebuses at a preferential price.

Of course, there were many other miscellaneous clauses, such as protecting the rights of Wanjin merchants. These were all finalized, which meant that the Imagawa family, busy fighting with the Matsudaira family, reluctantly gave in to them.

Once all these matters were settled, the fleet resumed its journey, leaving the Imagawa family's territory and continuing eastward toward the Izu Peninsula.

(End of this chapter)