"It's over! It's over... It's impossible for the price of gold to fall back. The gold-silver price ratio around the world is around 1:15. How could it be different in Japan?"
"Who said that? Didn't the 1:5 exchange rate last for so many years? If Kobuin hadn't launched an army, the shogunate would have stabilized the gold and silver exchange rate!"
"What can we do now? According to the gold and silver exchange rate of 1:15, the price of rice will still fall! The price of white rice in the Shanghai rice market in the Ming Dynasty has always been between one and a half to two taels of silver (calculated in Japanese stones). If The price of rice in Osaka remains around 2 taels of silver, and if it is exchanged for gold at a price of 1:15...it is only more than 1 tael, it will have to drop by more than half!"
"So, all of us are doomed! We are all bankrupt, because no feudal lord will pay back the money..."
"Baga! Whoever dares not to pay back, we will punish him together!"
"What's the use of saying this now? All 300 feudal lords will soon default on their debts. How can we punish them all? Even the Emperor and the Crown Prince don't have that much power!"
"Then what should we do? Is it really necessary... to commit seppuku?"
"Konike-kun, what are you talking nonsense about? How can we commit seppuku? We are businessmen, not samurai... Hanging, taking poison, or jumping into Osaka Bay are the ways to die!"
"Oh, it's not a dead end! How could people like us end up in this situation?"
In Osaka Ryota Nakama, ten of Japan's largest financial tycoons have begun discussing how to commit suicide!
Because all of them are bankrupt, and everyone owes huge debts - these guys lend money to all Japan. Of course, it cannot be all their own, and they will also absorb other people's funds. Those who lent money to them were all large households. Of course, large households would not settle with silver or copper coins, so their liabilities were settled with one or two cents.
Now the debts they lent to the feudal lords are basically irrecoverable - the price of rice settled in gold has dropped by at least 70 to 80%. How can the feudal lords repay their debts? This is the pace at which Kaga's millions of stones transformed into the most impoverished feudal clan of Yonezawa in a matter of seconds!
With 300 feudal lords armed together and defaulting on their debts, what can the wealthy businessmen of Osaka do? And cut them all down? If you have this ability, why should you be a profiteer? Isn't it better to be an emperor?
And there is no way for these profiteers to repay the debt they borrowed, unless they commit suicide or run away... They don't have an army, so they can't be armed and repay the debt!
Of course, the reason why these profiteers have reached this stage is not because they are too stupid, but because the Tokugawa shogunate's financial policy is very strange - the currency of the Tokugawa shogunate is not the gold standard or the silver standard, but gold, silver and copper coins. Standard, the exchange prices of gold, silver, and copper coins are fixed by the official price.
When Kamiko Ieyasu set prices for gold, silver, and copper coins, he did not check the international prices. Instead, he directly set the exchange rate based on the prices that have been prevailing in Japan for hundreds or thousands of years.
Japan has always been relatively closed and has abundant local gold reserves. The Ming Dynasty next door implemented the silver standard, which sucked up a large amount of silver produced in Japan (about 75% of the production flowed into China). As a result, the domestic gold and silver price ratio in Japan was very abnormal. .
In the original history, because the Tokugawa shogunate closed the country and could control the proportion and quantity of gold, silver and copper flowing out, and also controlled the huge output of gold and silver mountains, it was enough to price domestic gold and silver, so this abnormal exchange rate has been maintained. To the end of the Tokugawa period.
But the situation is different now. Before Emperor Komu's rebellion, Japan had already opened five ports for trade, and in the Ming Dynasty next door, financial groups like the Salt Bank appeared - the Salt Bank held more than 100 million in its hands. Two taels of silver are enough to exchange all the gold in Japan!
Of course, before Emperor Komu rebelled, the Tokugawa shogunate could still prevent Ming's financial capital from collecting Japanese gold in large quantities through the replacement of ten people.
However, after Emperor Komu rebelled, the control of the Tokugawa shogunate declined rapidly, and Emperor Komu seized Japan's first and second largest silver mines and the largest gold mine, which made the Tokugawa shogunate instantly lose their ability to intervene. market capabilities. The Golden and Ginza of the Shogunate are no longer able to mint coins!
Under such circumstances, of course gold, which was inexplicably suppressed by the Tokugawa shogunate, had to skyrocket... After gold skyrocketed two or three times, of course rice priced in gold had to plummet. This was not actually a drop in rice prices. , but the price of gold has risen.
So the feudal lords who collected rice and owed gold could only collectively arm themselves and default on their debts!
Of course, the two merchants who lent money to these feudal lords became the biggest culprits. They were beaten to death by Zhu Cixiang, and now they had to think about how to commit suicide.
But this businessman was not a samurai after all, and when it came time to die, he was not very straightforward. He discussed it over and over again, but he just couldn't make up his mind to die.
At this moment, the door of the room where ten ryōdai businessmen were gathering was suddenly opened by a servant. Outside, kneeling was a bantou from Osaka ryōdai Nakama Yui.
"Dear bosses, Zheng Zongming from an official business in the Ming Dynasty wants to see you!"
"Zheng Zongming?" Konoikeya Zenemon, the owner of Konoikeya, snorted, "Why is he here? Does he want to see our jokes?"
"The price of gold has risen so fast this time. Isn't it because profiteers from the Ming Dynasty like Zheng Zongming are causing trouble!" Izumiya Bingwei gritted his teeth when he talked about profiteers!
"That's right, it's them..." Sakamotoya Zenemon slapped his thigh, with a look of annoyance and remorse on his face, "Our Sakamotoya's gold was stolen by a group of profiteers from Nagasaki. Standing in front of the chief Isn’t the person behind the traitorous businessman the same traitorous businessman from the Ming Dynasty?”
"The Kobuin imperial rebellion was also supported by profiteers from the Ming Dynasty!" Yutaya Sonemon clenched his fists, looking like he was about to beat someone.
Kagiya Rokubei shouted: "We cannot let the big profiteer named Zheng go..."
The two wealthy businessmen made unfriendly remarks towards Zheng Zongming one after another, and only one of them proposed to hold a Hongmen banquet and break the glass.
However, Tennojiya Gobei was relatively calm as he wrote in pairs of ten. He coughed and said, "Don't shout and kill... We are still businessmen now, not robbers! Since we are businessmen, we should regard peace as the most important thing." , even if the sale fails, we can't use bad words."
As he spoke, he stood up and said, "Let's go and invite him in!"
After all, he is the boss of a team of ten people, and his magnanimity is truly admirable!
When he said this, the other nine profiteers became speechless and followed him to meet Zheng Zongming - these people were businessmen, not robbers. The visiting Zheng Zongming is a loyal pirate...of course he will not be afraid of these Osaka profiteers. Besides, these Japanese profiteers were not tricked to death by him. They were tricked by the descendants of two gods. One was Zhu Cixiang, a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang, and Emperor Xingmu, a descendant of Amaterasu.
Of course Zheng Zongming came to Osaka to help his friends!
"Everyone, I heard that both of you have encountered some turnover problems..." Zheng Zongming said, "So I came here from Nagasaki to see if I can help."
help?
Is there anyone willing to help at this time?
The ten profiteers in Osaka were all moved for a while, especially those who yelled and killed, and felt a little guilty.
"Zheng Sang," Tennojiya Wubei looked at Zheng Zongming and asked, "Are you, the official bank, willing to lend us money to tide us over?"
Zheng Zongming asked with a smile: "I wonder if you have calculated how much money it will take to pass this level?"
Tennojiya Gobei smiled bitterly, "It will cost about 1.8 million taels of gold...the hole is indeed a bit big!"
The hole is a bit big, but it is not impossible for Zheng Zhilong to fill it, let alone Zhu Cihong who owns the Salt Bank.
Zheng Zongming looked at the ten unlucky profiteers in front of him, nodded and said with a smile: "The hole is indeed a bit big...but it doesn't matter, there are always ways. I have prepared a fast boat for you. You can take your family on the boat and run away at any time. If you keep the green hills, you won’t be afraid of running out of firewood!"
