Chapter 151 Shengsi (Ask for a monthly pass!) Read! ）

In a factory in Kansai, Japan, when the factory director announced the suspension of production, he excitedly announced to the female workers:

"The export of raw silk produced by our factory was exchanged for foreign exchange, and the large warships were bought back, and the Russian fleet was sunk in the Tsushima Strait."

It immediately attracted a cheer from the female workers.

Indeed, the Japanese won this war too easily, and they were too tired to win. The Battle of Tsushima is very timely, and if it drags on any longer, it really can't be delayed! After such a big victory, the whole country of Japan was jubilant.

In order to meet the needs of foreign expansion, the entire Japanese economy was brought into the orbit of the war, and many poor families were forced to send their daughters to silk reeling factories or textile factories to do hard labor, working overtime day and night to meet the needs of exporting foreign exchange. It is no exaggeration to say that in the Tsushima Strait, the giant ships of the United Fleet, with a single shell, embody the blood and sweat of countless ordinary Japanese people, and the raw silk is especially important!

For Japan, a backward country, raw silk has always been Japan's main export. For a long time afterward, raw silk accounted for about half of the total value of the commodity. As an industrially backward country, Japan has a huge trade deficit with foreign countries, and raw silk has become an important commodity for earning foreign exchange.

The Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868, marked Japan's transition from a feudal economy to a capitalist economy, which brought an excellent opportunity for the development of the silk industry. At that time, Japan's Prime Minister Masatsukata proposed the "second-line national policy", that is, silk lines and shipping routes. As an export material, silk thread is exchanged for essential materials through air routes, so it actively develops silk production.

However, in the early years of the Meiji era, due to backward technology, thousands of baskets of Japanese raw silk were scrapped in London due to poor quality. Japan's raw silk reputation has declined dramatically. The Japanese government had to hire the French to build a government-run silk factory, using French machines and steam engines. After the factory was built, the government ordered that the wives and daughters of the scholars from all over the country should go to the factory to learn the techniques so that they could be popularized throughout the country, and within four years, more than 2ooo female workers were trained as French technicians. After 1873, Masato founded the Tokyo Silk Reeling Factory and the Shinmachi Silk Reeling Factory. Become a model factory in Japan's silk reeling industry. At the time of the 1873 World's Fair held in Vienna, raw silk produced in Fukuoka Prefecture was comparable to that produced in Europe and the United States.

In 1878, Japan's raw silk exports were 726 tons, and the total output was 1,226 tons, which was less than 1/3 of the annual output of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. In 19o3, in just 15 years, Japan's total exports of raw silk reached 675o tons, which officially surpassed China in terms of quantity and average quality.

By 19o5, Japan's exports of raw silk reached 3/5 of the world's total raw silk exports, four times that of China, and this is the most critical export material for the Japanese economy, in exchange for a large amount of foreign exchange and gold for Japan. It can even be said without hesitation that it was raw silk that was exchanged for machinery, warships, and cannons, which supported Japan's industry and war.

For Japan, raw silk is almost the lifeblood of Japan.

Anyone who gets on a Japanese train along the railway line can see a strange scenery, in the rice fields dense mulberry forests, these mulberry forests are selected and bred by the Japanese agricultural research institute, and the mulberry trees planted together reflect the Japanese style.

Not only the distance of each mulberry tree is strictly controlled in accordance with the "textbook", and even a sign is hung on each tree in a hurry, the sign is written with the planting year, the age of the tree, last year's yield, the amount of control féi, etc., the Japanese style of fineness is fully reflected in the planting of mulberry trees, although it is located in Kyoto Pingyuan, but here the undulating hills and mountains are still everywhere, in order to develop the silk industry, the Japanese cut down the miscellaneous trees on the mountain bags, and planted a large mulberry forest in the most scientific way.

Due to the warm Pacific Current and the cold current of Sialian, the abundant rainfall, coupled with the rational and scientific cultivation of mulberry trees, makes Japan's mulberry leaf resources abundant.

Scientific management may be the key to the rise of Japan's raw silk industry.

With the exhibition of the silk industry in the Kyoto area, Japan's more powerful chaebol Du Xun took this as a template, using the support of the government and its own financial resources to promote it throughout Japan, after 30 years of exhibition, raw silk became the pillar of the Japanese economy, although the raw silk industry was widely developed throughout Japan, but the Kyoto Plain in Kansai became the center of the raw silk processing industry because of the origin of raw silk, and it was also the center of the raw silk import and export industry.

Yokohama, as the center of Japan's raw silk industry, in addition to Japan's own buyers, more are raw silk merchants from Europe and the United States, in the center of Yokohama, a foreign company lives next to each other, every day, less than a dozen tons, more than hundreds of tons of raw silkworms, raw silk between these silk merchants and foreign companies, and finally a bag of raw silk is loaded onto cargo ships, imported to Europe and the United States. ,

"Markup, markup......"

Yokohama commodity jiao trade office, raw silk jiao easy members from time to time waving small pieces of paper in their hands, jiao easy to a crowded appearance, employed by various silk merchants and foreign companies jiao easy people, from time to time shouted a new price, the last month or two, raw silk jiao easy into an unprecedented high chao, raw silk jiao easy volume is growing every day, the same price is also stable and rising.

"Crazy, crazy!"

Looking at the crazy crowd in front of him, Matsumoto Fuji, who had just walked out of Jiao Yi, couldn't help but shout.

Matsumoto Fuji, who opened a silk factory, was almost surrounded in Jiao Yi before, and everyone was asking him a question, is there still raw silk in the factory?

Silk is golden!

This is the most popular sentence in the last month or so, although now with the rapid development of China's raw silk, Japan's raw silk exports are not as good as before, but the amount of jiao has not decreased, even worse than in the past, in just one month, the price of raw silk has increased by 5%.

There is no price in the market, almost every jiao has shown the current abnormality of the raw silk market, the supply of raw silk seems to have a problem, or in other words, someone preemptively bought almost all of the raw silk and used futures contracts, a month ago, dozens of foreign firms, with futures contracts to buy most of the raw silk supply.

It is these foreign banks that monopolize more than sixty percent of the supply of raw silk with futures contracts, and these foreign banks are still constantly buying raw silk spots, even at the expense of raising prices.

"Mr. Matsumoto......"

Arthur? As soon as Joseph saw Matsumoto Fuji, he hurriedly greeted him warmly.

"Mr. Matsumoto, please ...... here"

Arthur said with a smile on his face and in a tone that could not be questioned. A few minutes later, Matsumoto Fuji, who was led to the foreign company, looked at Arthur in front of him respectfully, and squeaked for a long time without being able to speak.

"650,000 yen! Cash! ”

As soon as he opened his mouth, Arthur spat out a price that Matsumoto couldn't refuse.

"Mr. Ya, Mr. Arthur, you must know that the price of raw silk is still rising now!"

"Price increase!"

Frowning, Arthur shrugged his shoulders and said.

"It's a price increase, but it's only temporary, who knows?"

As he spoke, Arthur smiled again.

"Well, I'll add another 5%, and of course you have to make sure that your raw silk can't be sold to a second person!"

As he spoke, Arthur took out a contract like a trick, which was a spot futures purchase contract, and Arthur had been in contact with Matsumoto Vine in front of him before, but he was rejected.

"Mr. Arthur, many people say ......"

Listening to this quote, Matsumoto wondered whether he should say it.

"Do you mean a malicious monopoly?"

Arthur laughed loudly, without the slightest hint of contrivedness.

Malicious monopoly is a hat recently given by the Japanese press to these foreign banks and compradors who participated in the spot purchase and futures purchase of raw silk, which means that they are now rushing to buy and buy at a high price, with the purpose of monopolizing the export of Japanese raw silk in the future, so as to seize the pricing power of raw silk.

"I do not deny that we are trying to get the pricing power of Japanese raw silk, but Mr. Matsumoto, do not forget that the pricing power of Japanese raw silk is in the hands of the British, and this is only ...... Competition between Westerners! ”

Looking at Matsumoto, the owner of the sixth-largest production line factory in Japan, Arthur continued.

"For Japanese people, you need just a reasonable price, don't you? And the economic rewards of adaptation, whether the British or the Americans hold the pricing power, but don't deny it, my friend! ”

Blinking, Arthur looked at Matsumoto with a seemingly innocent look.

"The basic price of raw silk is in your hands on the price of pressed raw silk and the price of Chinese raw silk, but in Japan, you have successfully thwarted the attempts of the British, haven't you?"

Arthur's words brought a wave of pride to Matsumoto, and it was the concerted efforts of the Japanese raw silk companies that made the British attempt to drive down the price of raw silk come to naught twenty years ago, and the Chinese were simply scattered.

"Moreover, I have heard that the government is preparing to increase the tax on the raw silk factories recently, so the competition between us and the British should be said to be more beneficial to you, what do you think?"

Arthur whispered a fact, the Japanese government did not reduce the tax ratio because of the cessation of the war, but further increased the tax ratio, maybe Japan won the war, but Japan was almost dragged down by the huge cost, the loss of the war was amazing, and Japan, which did not get a penny of reparations, needed money to tide over its own financial crisis.

"Capacity...... Let me think again...... Hey"

After hesitating for a while, Matsumoto Fuji responded with a squeak, but before he finished speaking, he took the initiative to pick up the pen and signed his name on the contract.

And when he signed and sealed, he didn't notice a hint of treachery in Arthur's smile.