1855 United States Tycoon

After listening to Morgan’s words, Takahashi smiled and said, “Of course I understand your concerns. But you must also understand that if a bullet can kill a yellow man, then they can also kill a white man. People. It’s not the skin color that determines the outcome of the war. No matter what color the skin is, it can’t stop bullets. Moreover, Mr. MacDonald must know that Japanese workers are no better than other white workers in various jobs. Difference."

Although he is very dissatisfied with the upright racial discrimination in this era, Takahashi will not really argue with the United States on this issue. After all, he is here to borrow money, not to fight. In fact, he also understood that the United States guy used this excuse to increase the price.

"Mr. Takahashi, the most fundamental reason why we are willing to use Japanese workers is not because they are capable, but because it is cheaper to use them." Greenstone said coldly, "If they require the same conditions as white workers , We won’t use these Japanese workers. It’s the same now. If your country insists on getting the same treatment as a white country, then this requirement is probably too high. And, Mr. Takahashi, you should also know the time left for your country. Not much. The Siberian Railway is being extended day by day. When the war goes on for one day every night, the balance of victory in the war will tilt a little bit towards the Russians. Of course, this will also make our investment risk ascending a bit, and for this we need the interest rate. It will also be higher. This is like the war between you and the Qing in 18-94. At the beginning, the Qing could borrow from us or from the United Kingdom at an interest rate of about 4%. Money. Unfortunately, they feel that the interest rate is too high. When the situation becomes unfavorable later, even with an interest rate of six to seven percent, they cannot borrow enough money. Moreover, the mortgage conditions required to borrow the money have become even more severe. It's harsh. So, considering Japan, I think you want a more favorable loan from the beginning. This is not a good idea."

"Then what do you think should be handled?" Takahashi asked. But Grey Stone just smiled and did not continue to speak.

"Your government should be able to determine how much power the Russians can invest in the Far East, and how much money you still have to defeat him. You may not have the specific numbers, but the rough numbers should still be there." Little Morgan said. "Can you tell me about how much loan you need?"

Takahashi thought for a while, this question is not easy to answer, because too many secrets are involved. A lot of secret information is actually obtained without the thrilling methods in the 007 series or "Mission Impossible". But through the analysis of some public activities, it can be obtained. For example, now, if you know the amount of loans the Japanese need, and reverse the past, there will be a lot of things that you didn't know before, such as Japan's fiscal and material preparation levels, and you can infer a rough idea. They know all these things. Although Takahashi is not worried about them telling the Russians, letting them know such a base will also have a lot of adverse effects on the negotiation.

But it’s not good not to tell others, so how can I borrow money? Takahashi thought for a while and replied, "We also sold some bonds in Europe, so now we probably only need to sell 60 million yen worth of bonds."

In fact, Takahashi only sold less than 20 million bonds in Europe, which is far from the 140 million yen that the government expected. Even if you add 60 million, it's still a lot worse. However, as long as these United States bigwigs are willing to buy these national debts, others will have confidence in the war debts issued by Japan, and then the sales of other parts will naturally become easier.

"Sixty million?" Greystone smiled coldly. "If you really think that you only need 60 million yen, we don't have to talk about it. We are not ignorant of the size of your country's economy. , To be honest, we still put a lot of thought into your country’s economic information. As you know, we can’t get too many real secrets, but we know the general economic situation of your country. The country’s national treasury can support the war with no more than 100 million funds, and how much national debt you have sold in Europe, we are not unable to find out. Even if we believe that your country’s military is slightly stronger than the Russian army, this In World War I, if your country does not borrow 200 to 300 million yen, it will definitely not be enough. And the figure you are talking about now, I can only understand that your country has overestimated own power and underestimated too much. Russians. This time your opponent is not the Qing country, but a powerful country."

Gladstone stared into Takahashi's eyes and said: "If your country prepares for the war against the Russians as a war against the Qing country, then I think your country's failure is inevitable. Considering that your country will suffer defeat. Ability, to put it bluntly, at this point, you are not as good as Qing Guo. I think if your national debt does not have a 10% interest rate, it will be difficult to attract investors to take risks."

Gray Stone's understanding of the situation, especially his understanding of Japan, surprised Takahashi. How much money is in the treasury, and the specific number Takahashi may not be able to say at once, but he knows that the number is the same as Gray What Shi Dong said will not be too different. As for how much money will be needed for this battle, the people in the army say much less than what Grey Stone said. They think that as long as the government can borrow more than 100 million yen, it will definitely be enough. It's just that those guys in the army are telling the truth, Takahashi is very suspicious.

In the first place, those guys in the army, whether they are from the army or the navy, like to speak big words have become a kind of political correctness. For example, in the military school, the instructor tells you that you are carrying a company and suddenly an enemy is found ahead. What should you do? If you stupidly replied: "Send people to scout first and see how many people there are, and then make a decision." Then you don't want to pass, because the correct answer is: divide the soldiers into two groups, surround them, and destroy them. As for the question of how many people there are on the other side, considering that is not the brave (sha) daring (mao) locust army. Our Great Japanese Locust Army never asks how many enemies there are, only where they are! With this kind of culture, when these guys make a budget, there is always not enough room left.

The second is that the guys in the army are all looking forward to getting rich through battles. They may worry that if they say too much about the money they need, the government's bones will use this as an excuse to refuse to go to war. So, maybe they will say a small number first, and then when the fight starts, they will ask for additions. Anyway, at this time, the government gritted their teeth and tried to help them withstand it. The military of many countries in later generations will play this hand. For example, when the military of the Beacon Nations of the later generations developed the F-35 fertilizer-electric fighter, they initially fooled the Congress to say that this product is cheaper and the unit price will not exceed 30 million U.S. dollars, which is higher than Congress. Fighter F-16 is also cheap. It's so cheap, can Congress not approve it? Is it still a human being? Then after waiting for a while, and the money was not enough, I told the Congress that there were some problems, and a little more funding was needed. Most of the problems are solved, and you can complete it with just a little more money. Although this is a bit overspend, if you don’t continue to burn the money, the money spent in front of it will be spent in vain, so the Congress had to add another sum, and then after a while, in the end this product was finally offline, and the unit price became more than 120 million. .

For the military, Takahashi also knows these careful eyes. Therefore, when Grey Stone said the figure of 200 million to 300 million, Takahashi felt that this number might be much more reliable than the one given by the military.

"Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Schiff." Takahashi said, "I have a suggestion that can effectively reduce everyone's risk. I wonder if you are interested in listening?"

Grey Stone frowned slightly, and then said, "Tell me what you think."

"I think it’s sometimes hard to say that the war needs to spend less money, but we can first sell part of the national debt at an interest rate that everyone is satisfied with, and sign a memorandum to continue the purchase. After the war has been going on for a period of time, according to the situation of the war, Let’s discuss the subsequent sales of treasury bonds and its interest rate. At this time, if we still need to issue treasury bonds, you have the situation on the battlefield as a reference, and the risk is much smaller when making judgments." Takahashi said.

Little Morgan looked at Greystone, then at Jacob Schiff, then nodded and said, "Mr. Takahashi, your suggestion is interesting. I think we can discuss it."

Of course, the specific negotiations don't need to be dealt with by people like Morgan and Greystone. They just agree on the approximate amount, interest rate and mortgage together. Since the number of sales needed at the beginning is not much, only 60 million, even if the interest rate is higher and the collateral is a bit more expensive, it is not unacceptable for the Japanese. Anyway, after the war, if everything goes well, then everything is easy to talk about. If it doesn’t go well, where can the situation go badly? Anyway, it’s enough for Japan to not completely swallow the North Korea and control Manchuria as much as possible. The economy has collapsed, and if the war is defeated, Japan will change from the diners at the table to the food on the table again. Anyway, the situation can no longer be bad, and the dangers of debt are all trivial matters at this time.

Because there were no worries, the negotiations became much smoother, and soon they reached a basic framework: the interest rate on the first national debt was 6%, and the Japanese government leased a piece of land in southern Taiwan for a long time. The Macdonald Consortium, the Morgan Consortium and the Midwest Union Bank formed a joint company with land rent as collateral. Lease a fishing port near Hokkaido to a joint company specially established by McDonald and Morgan, and allow them to engage in fishing, with fishing port rent and fishery taxes as collateral.

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