"United Textile Technology has a monopoly on cotton sales in the Far East. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Arguably, this is the crux of all the issues. Duncan. Sandy is not alone, and behind him are the Chicago and Cleveland conglomerates, which directly or indirectly control most of the cotton fields in the United States and can exert pressure on the remaining cotton growers and buyers — so, as their sole agent in the Far East, United Textile Technologies has no competitors from the United States.

Most American cotton merchants would choose to avoid Duncan's sphere of influence, otherwise they would not be able to buy the same pound of cotton; Cotton merchants with relatively consolidated sources will also choose to withdraw from the Far East market, because if they do not, they will have to face the price offensive of United Textile Technologies. Duncan could easily reduce the price of his cotton by twenty percent if he wanted to, but the average merchant could not survive such a war.

Finally, there are American businessmen who choose to transfer their cotton holdings to United Textile Technologies, both to protect their own interests and in exchange for Duncan's support in other businesses.

Everyone knows that this Duke of the Abyssinian Empire is also a shareholder of the Umbrella Security Service, and although he cannot directly control and command the mercenaries, he can establish contact with Lieutenant Colonel Yi Shui, who has command rights, through him. Of course, more importantly, the merchants felt that they could bargain with Umbrella through His Royal Highness the Duke, and control the mercenary's commission within a range that they could afford.

Although in reality, they could have achieved the same results without Duncan – the same troops, the same mission, the same time, the average customer would have to pay much less than the government client, but for business benefit, Umbrella's public standard offer has always been the government client's offer......

In any case, although nominally Duncan was not the only American seller of cotton in the Far East, in reality he was. United Textile Technology had a monopoly on U.S. cotton sales in the Far East, and it was the only option if Japanese businessmen wanted to get their hands on cotton.

Shigenobu Okuma interrupts Hitoshi Kuroshima. "Can't buy it directly in the United States?"

The head of the secret service shook his head, slowly but surely.

Buying cotton in the United States is an even more unrealistic idea. Even if we don't consider whether the Chicago and Cleveland consortiums are willing to sell the cotton—there is a high probability of refusal, after all, Qin Lang is an important partner of them—and the most lethal thing is that even if Japanese merchants can buy cotton, they will not be able to ship the goods back home.

With Qin Lang's power, he could easily turn the cotton that Japanese merchants had spent so much money on into a pile of ashes, or make the cargo ships transporting cotton disappear forever in the Pacific Ocean. Kuroshima Ren didn't doubt that Qin Lang would do this, because he himself wanted to set fire to the yarn mill and warehouse of the United Textile Technology Company.

"Captain Kuroshima, don't you think your judgment is too subjective?" Okuma asked rhetorically.

"Your Excellency, I have conducted a long-term and in-depth investigation of Qin Lang, and I think I know him very well." Obviously, Kuroshima had exaggerated how well he knew Qin Lang, and in fact the spies he sent had not obtained any valuable information or clues at all, but the Foreign Minister knew nothing about it.

Of course, Shigenobu Okuma didn't believe Hitoshi Kuroshima's warning. Although he did not know the actual situation, with the acumen and experience of a seasoned professional politician, he felt that it should be just an exaggeration.

"Okay." He decided to skip the part about Qin Lang, "Continue with the part you just reported about United Textile Technology Company." ”

"Yes, Your Excellency."

For all of its potential competitors, in addition to its monopolistic operations, another problem for United Textile Technologies is that its business is multifaceted, selling cotton, as well as cotton yarn and cotton cloth, as well as intervening in the raw silk trade; It is unfair to be a supplier, a manufacturer, and a seller.

But in this tragic world, fairness has never existed only in people's imaginations, not in the real world......

Kuroshima put away his complaints and continued: "In fact, Duncan. There was no need for Sandy to sell cotton to other mills. He still did it only because the mill he had built was not enough to digest all of his cotton, but eventually one day he would end the cotton business and sell only cotton yarn and cotton cloth. ”

In fact, Qin Lang and Duncan didn't plan to do this, and they never had similar ideas. A monopoly on China's cotton yarn and cotton cloth market may seem like a wonderful thing, but it is actually a huge problem. The capitalists in the United States can care about the United Textile Technologies monopolizing or maximizing control of the cotton trade between the United States and China, but if it intends to do more, they will have to protest to Congress.

Qin Lang didn't want to fall victim to the Anti-Monopoly Act, and neither did the Chicago Consortium and the Cleveland Consortium, so there would be a lot of room for the cotton yarn and cotton cloth market in China, but there would be no share of Japanese businessmen – but neither Hitoshi Kuroshima nor Shigenobu Okuma knew.

So this time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs agreed with the warning of the head of the secret service, but discounted it. "It's a nuisance, indeed."

"It's a disaster, Your Excellency." Hitoshi Kuroshima emphasized.

Disaster, disaster, disaster, the word he had heard too much. Shigenobu Okuma began to get impatient. "Perhaps, Captain Kuroshima." He gestured to stop Kuroshima Ren from trying to justify, "But there is one thing I must remind you that if United Textile Technology is destined to end the cotton business and no longer sell raw materials to any of the mills, now you are asking the Empire to come forward and deal with Duncan. What is the point of Sandy's ban on sales? ”

"Your Excellency, if the United Textile Technology Company is prepared to monopolize the cotton yarn market in China, it will be to the detriment of the interests of the European countries, and at that time the Reich will be able to launch a counterattack with the British and independent countries. But if we can't fix Duncan. Sandy's ban on sales, before it can launch a counterattack, the empire will not only completely lose the Chinese market, but also the domestic textile industry will shrink significantly, and there will be no chance of recovery. ”

Perhaps it was too much, or perhaps to get Shigenobu Okuma to take a closer look at his words, but Kuroshima hitoshi paused for a moment to rest before issuing one last warning: "The government cannot sustain expenditures on the current scale by relying solely on the income from the export of raw silk. ”

But Shigenobu Okuma was considering resigning, so that last sentence didn't play any role, either positive or negative. But Kuroshima's efforts were not entirely in vain – the foreign secretary was convinced that he was not exaggerating.

"I'll send a representative to Duncan as soon as possible. Sandy negotiates. Shigenobu Okuma announced.

"Your Excellency, mere negotiations may not make a difference, and I ask you to allow the Black Island authorities to carry out operations." In fact, this is the real purpose of Kuroshima Ren, who began espionage and sabotage against Qin Lang in the name of the Japanese government. He doesn't think he has much to do with the plight of the Japanese textile capitalists and the financial crisis the government is about to face—the Kuroshima family is not involved in the textile industry, and no family member is the prime minister, foreign minister, or minister of agriculture and commerce...... Wait a minute.

Hitoshi Kuroshima suddenly remembered another thing, the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Lieutenant General Enomoto Takehiro, seemed to have left his post a few months ago, and the current one in this position is ......

"Your Excellency, it seems that you are also the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce?"

"That's right." Okuma nodded. After Takehiro Enomoto left his post, he began to serve as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, and it has been almost seven months now. However, not many people knew about it, and because of the serious opposition to the Satsuma sect, he was even more dissatisfied with the position he was holding and basically did not spend much energy on his work.

The problem was that Kuroshima still didn't know, so he began to think about a new problem: as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Okuma Shigenobu should have been aware of the troubles in Japan's domestic textile industry and the greater dangers that followed, and took emergency measures to eliminate the crisis, but he did nothing, knew nothing—but Okuma was supposed to be a hard-working man. If the problem is not his, it means......

There must be problematic elements in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, maybe they are spies! In just a moment, Hitoshi Kuroshima had come to a conclusion that matched his professional identity.

He didn't have time to take a closer look at the issue, though—Okuma Shigenobu granted his request. "Chief of the Black Island, if the negotiations are not successful, I will allow your agency to take action."

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency." Hitoshi Kuroshima stood up and bowed to the Foreign Secretary.

"But be careful, don't go overboard."

"I understand, Your Excellency."

Having achieved his goal, Hitoshi Kuroshima left the Foreign Secretary's office in a happy mood. But as soon as he left, Shigenobu Okuma called his secretary. "Give me all the reports of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce on the textile industry in the last seven months, be quick!"

He had some lessons that needed to be made up as soon as possible.

Some classes that will blow his mind away.

Zhanjiang, now.

In Duncan's office, Nakagawa Tsunejiro finally showed his anger straightforwardly, not as he had at the beginning, and he had been trying to convince Duncan by various means for the past hour. But now he's finally giving up.

Of course, time is over. "We only have one hour, Mr. Nakagawa." Duncan pointed to the alarm clock on the table and said with a smile.

The meaning was clear, and Tsunejiro Nakagawa could only stand up. "You'll regret it, Mr. Sandy."

"Good." Duncan replied.

That was his only answer. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )