CHAPTER 301: CHAPTER 216 ALL DRUG DEALERS MUST DIE!

"So the Imagawa family just chickened out like that?"

The cargo ship carrying Hirajima Yoshichiro and other Wanjin masters slowly sailed into Paoquan Port. Aside from a few Lang Faction men coming aboard to do a quick inspection, there was no trouble at all, not even any taxes to pay; it was as relaxed and pleasant as coming home.

"Looks like they did chicken out!"

"How did they chicken out?"

"I was ready to step up and join the fight then, not afraid to die—just worried the goods would end up stuck in my hands..."

After these masters set foot on the dock, they continued to chatter, actually feeling a bit disappointed they didn’t get to fight. But since they were here for business, the disappointment only lasted a moment before they split up in twos and threes to get busy. After all, they had to deliver goods, but also check out the local products, to avoid sending their ships back empty later.

Hirajima Yoshichiro and a few others who were close grouped together, first observing prices in the port town of Paoquan. What they saw stunned them, but moments later they couldn’t help but beam with joy—ironware in Tōtōmi was outrageously expensive, with retail prices more than seventy percent higher than in Wanjin.

After just a few days’ travel, the price had gone up seventy percent. If they went for another month, the price...

Can’t even begin to imagine!

No wonder those shipping merchants kept running to Atsuta Port to fetch goods. Turns out sea trade is such a money maker?

Damn it, most of their past profits were actually being made by those middlemen scoundrels!

The group gathered there, inspecting ironware and chasing after young clerks asking for prices. The manager of this seat merchant was soon alarmed, and after stepping out of the dirt-floor merchant’s seat and seeing their strange attire, his mind immediately clicked and he politely asked, "Are you all Wanjin merchants?"

Because Hirajima Yoshichiro had a "councilman" status, he was the de facto leader of the group. Naturally, he stepped forward to respond, answering politely, "That’s right, we’re Wanjin people. Manager, has the price of ironware in Paoquan always been this... always at this level?"

The manager gestured for them to go in and sit, smiling as he replied, "Of course not. Prices only dropped last year—before then, it was even more expensive."

Hirajima Yoshichiro and his companions exchanged glances and nodded in understanding, guessing this was thanks to Wanjin’s influence. Since last year, iron production on the Chita Peninsula had soared, and in order to trade for grain to fight the famine, they started dumping prices. Atsuta Port’s iron prices were slashed again and again, and with Paoquan Port not far from Atsuta, its prices likely fell in turn.

But even with prices slashed, turning a seventy percent profit, they’re basically making a killing—and even if they just marked up Atsuta Port’s price by ten percent, they’d still make a profit. The only reason they couldn’t sell in Wanjin or Atsuta Port was the "state-owned factory" in Wanjin; the state factory dared to sell at a loss, but they couldn’t.

Hirajima Yoshichiro immediately asked, "Manager, may I ask if your company is willing to purchase ironware? How much can you take?"

You have to check on this first. Now, in Owari and Wanjin, the "seat head system" is basically abolished, so there’s no need for a temple monopoly license, but they were unclear about the situation in Tōtōmi, so they had to ask first.

If the other side tried to name some temple, then they’d have to invoke Harano to counter, just to ensure smooth sales.

But they were overthinking it. Tōtōmi had very little iron production, with ironware itself imported from East Sea, East Mountain, North Land, etc. There wasn’t any temple force managing the ironware business here, and the manager was well prepared, knowing they were here to sell goods. He immediately asked in return, "How much can you all supply?"

"As much as you want, we’ve got it!" Hirajima Yoshichiro answered without hesitation. Worst case, they’d just expand production when they got back, but as for price, they’d still have to negotiate hard—every extra wen earned is a win.

The two sides immediately haggled over prices for a long time. The manager even called over the shop owner and several friendly colleagues—all in the hope of getting a better deal for bigger orders. They were thorough to the tiniest coin, and also treated them to Tōtōmi specialties—Tōtōmi tea, Tōtōmi tangerines, and even gifted each of them a bolt of "Tōtōmi rough silk."

Hirajima Yoshichiro and the others thought Tōtōmi goods were pretty decent, totally saleable back in Wanjin, maybe even in Owari, Minoh, and Sanhe. With Harano having secured them exemption from "customs ship fees," their costs were definitely lower than others’, so no way they’d lose money.

Both sides saw big profits ahead. It was a case of meeting too late—conversation flowed readily, a contract was signed on the spot, and they even partied together, drank a little wine, and these seat merchants even paid big money to bring in geishas for drinks, boasting that Tōtōmi geishas were second to none, almost on par with Shimizu.

This actually startled Hirajima Yoshichiro and the others—Wanjin was cracking down on vice hard, and they weren’t sure if hiring prostitutes in Tōtōmi would get them in trouble. With great "money" prospects ahead, no one wanted to ruin it for themselves, so they hurriedly bowed out.

But this did nothing to dampen their excitement. On their way back to the ship, they were still chatting enthusiastically, planning to unload first thing tomorrow, sail back empty together, then rush home to speed up production—trying to fill up the ships as quickly as possible and catch up with the main fleet to keep exploring east. These few were preparing to form an alliance; after merging their workshops, they’d divvy up duties—one stayed back to manage production, one remained on the road, the rest would follow the big party east, continuing to sign contracts.

This wouldn’t delay anything—the main fleet moved slowly, exploring as they went, spending days at every stop. They could easily shuttle back and forth and keep up.

The more they talked, the more fired up they became. In the end, someone, tipsy, sighed, "Turns out money outside is so easy to make. How come we never realized it before?"

"We just couldn’t make it before. Without Lord Yehua leading us, we wouldn’t even have made it here, couldn’t even afford to rent a boat. If we did make it, the Imagawa family would have skinned us alive—no way we’d make this much profit."

"His Lordship is a good man..."

"Should we donate some military funds to His Lordship?"

"I agree. We can’t just make money and pretend it didn’t happen—it’s embarrassing not to give anything back."

"His Lordship’s navy is key—without the navy we couldn’t have made it this far. Paoquan Port wouldn’t have waived our customs fee either. We’ll still have to rely on his navy to keep water thieves in check. In the future, if we earn well, we should buy a ship for His Lordship. That’s even better than giving him money directly."

"Why not invest in the Wanjin Shipyard, or try to get those seat merchants to hire some master shipbuilders from elsewhere, like Mr. Okabe?"

"That’s a good plan. We’ll need a lot of cargo ships ourselves—it’s better to invest in shipyards!"

Boozed up, this bunch of masters just kept running their mouths, feeling like business had never been this easy. The more they talked, the more hyped they got. But back on the ship, things were even crazier—the booze sellers, fabric sellers, salt hawkers were even more excited, all chatting that outside money was so much easier to earn than in Wanjin, that they should’ve left sooner, and cursing the middlemen for selling their goods at such high markups elsewhere.

Consensus achieved: build more ships, build them like crazy!

Right now the Wanjin Navy didn’t even have an absolute advantage over the Imagawa navy. This wouldn’t do; they needed a huge shipbuilding boom, so that whenever the Wanjin Navy went to sea, nobody would dare give them any trouble. Plus they themselves needed a fleet of cargo ships—no more letting middlemen get all the profit. Time to earn it themselves.

Similarly, many were linking up, planning to sail back together empty to bring more goods.

......

The Wanjin workshop masters were arguing and forming cliques aboard ship. Meanwhile, Ah Man had already compiled the price list for Paoquan Port, and even logged most of today’s supply contracts signed between the Wanjin masters and local seat merchants. The "Life-saving Group" had eaten their fill of funds over the years, but they really were getting the job done well.

Once Ah Man finished her stats, she was wide-eyed at today’s profiteering. With direct sales from the factory always cheaper than middleman prices, local seat merchants wouldn’t let this chance slip—they bought in bulk, whole-ship loads. Just at Paoquan Port alone, one third of the fleet’s cargo had been snapped up—over thirty fully loaded ships’ worth.

She couldn’t help exclaiming, "So sea trade is really this profitable?"

Harano also glanced at the ledger and laughed, "Of course sea trade is profitable. Otherwise, why would so many risk their lives to run out there? It’s just that average folks don’t even get a shot at this business."

This is nothing yet. Take the Age of Exploration, for example—a merchant ship sailing from Europe to South America, if the profit margin was less than 10,000 percent—a hundredfold return—that was considered a failure. Compared to that, this trip just outside Wanjin netted an average return of about 75 percent, something any serious maritime merchant would laugh at.

What they’re earning now is really just scraps.

Or you could say, with sea trade, the farther you go, the more you earn. In fact, the profit grows exponentially the further you travel.

Ah Man couldn’t think that far ahead. She was already thrilled with a 75 percent return. Some masters in Wanjin had been squeezed so hard by the "state-owned factory" they weren’t making any profit at all—just barely hanging on. If it weren’t for Harano lending a hand, someone like Hirajima Yoshichiro would have failed already.

If these folks could make easy money for a few years now, and then you slap some convenient charge on them and confiscate their property—wouldn’t Wanjin cash in big time?

She amused herself by mentally drafting up charges against these future tycoons. The future looked promising. Then, musing for a bit, she asked Harano, "From the looks of things, once we’ve run through the Imagawa family’s three ports, we’ll have nearly sold out. Should we keep heading east after that?"

"We should!" Harano answered without hesitation. He’d already crunched the numbers privately, and said, "All those workshops are going to expand, and soon, Tōtōmi and Shimizu alone won’t be enough to absorb their products. And with nearly a hundred ships’ worth, those three ports’ seat merchants could take months to offload it all. To keep the cycle going, we at least have to travel to the farthest east point of this island—that’s barely enough. Ideally, we’d go clear past the east tip into Kansai, but Ishiyama Honganji Temple is tough to deal with. Let’s check the far east first."

Ah Man nodded lightly. Since they were already out here, she didn’t care about floating around at sea for a few more months. It’s not like she had to row, hoist sails, or scrub the decks herself anyway.

That settled it. But talking is always easy, actually doing things is another mess altogether. Harano ended up stuck in Qingshui Bay for over ten days, just to finally seal the pact with Paoquan Port, Qingshui Port, and Shimizu Port. He and the Imagawa family became allies again—the Imagawa family promised him free access to their ports (well, to their markets, really), and in return he promised never to attack Imagawa territory in any form, and to sell them a fixed amount of gunpowder and iron cannon at a favorable rate.

Of course, there were all sorts of side clauses—guaranteeing Wanjin merchants’ rights and so on—all ironed out point by point. The Imagawa family was busy fighting the Matsudaira family, so with a pinched nose and much disgust, they gave in.

After wrapping up these affairs, the fleet finally set sail again, leaving Imagawa territory and continuing east toward the Izu Peninsula.