novelAbuy #440 - The Clash of the Chaebols
#440 - The Clash of the Chaebols
Yandu.
"Chief Ye, the supply of iron ore is something you'll need to coordinate."
After sorting through the steel industry and ore supplier landscape of both worlds, Ren Zhong had a clear understanding.
However, relying on the people from the Steel Association wouldn't work; the matter was too significant, and the Steel Association couldn't make decisions now.
He turned to Chief Ye.
"Just tell me what to do, Brother Ren.
If there's anything you need me to do, I'll do it right away."
Chief Ye readily agreed.
He was, of course, aware of the new plan for the Eastern Steel industry and understood the current difficulties.
"We are currently facing targeting from rogue eagle steel giants and financial conglomerates.
If we directly resolve this through our national power, there will be too many variables later on.
Even if we temporarily subdue our opponents and obtain temporary import supply permits, they will try every possible means to sabotage our efforts.
On their turf, it's clear that we'll be at a disadvantage if we fight them using this method,"
Ren Zhong said, carefully choosing his words.
"Our supply guarantee has a significant impact on the entire global steel industry landscape.
In this regard, our competitors will undoubtedly spare no effort to undermine the stability of our supply.
This not only relates to the quality of iron ore but also involves significant variables in terms of quantity and price."
Ren Zhong continued, "Therefore, after my research, it's not advisable for us to solve this problem through this method now.
Although our capacity construction is planned to be completed in five years, the iron ore supply itself has a cycle.
We must now urgently find ways to secure overseas iron ore supply, as the supply of tens of millions of tons cannot be resolved by domestic mines alone."
"The only approach we can take now is to find ways to cooperate with overseas financial groups and use their power to compete with these powerful steel conglomerates.
By leveraging the inconsistencies in interests among different financial groups within them, we can win over one faction while attacking another, ultimately achieving a dynamic balance.
This is the best outcome for us now.
In reality, the stakes in the steel industry chain are too high.
We need to give up a portion and cooperate with the powerful financial groups to share the profits, which is essential.
Currently, the rogue eagle's steel oligopoly financial group has a vast influence, and ordinary financial groups cannot compete with them."
"Therefore, I have a suggestion: we should bring in powerful financial groups from Europe to compete with them, allowing European financial groups to enter the mainstream iron ore supplier industry.
Using our huge demand as bait, we can secretly reach some long-term supply agreements with them at the national level, making them willing to enter this industry on a large scale.
After all, the European side is relatively weak in iron ore suppliers at present, and the current oligopoly of iron ore suppliers is controlled by rogue eagle capital.
However, on the one hand, we secretly support them in terms of sales; on the other hand, we have some information in exploration that can be used to develop new large iron mines in Australia to compete with other competitors.
Although building a new mine is not easy, it should be noted that Eastern's infrastructure is now world-renowned.
We can also privately agree to assist them in this regard, undertaking infrastructure aspects such as new iron ore mineral exploration and road construction.
I think they will agree to cooperate.
In terms of open cooperation, our Hidden Dragon Project has already developed a group of capital groups with relatively strong financial resources, although they are distributed in Europe, Southeast Asia, North America, and other places.
However, after proposing our plan, we can secretly activate these capital groups overseas to participate in the capital operation of this new iron ore supplier.
What is truly lurking within are dozens of capital operation enterprises created by exporting capital through John Bull's colonies and trusteeships.
They either rely on shipping or trading companies, etc., to legitimately participate in the stock market operations of Europe and North America.
They didn't focus on short-term profits, buying low and selling high, but instead invested in those rapidly developing leading companies, achieving exponential growth of capital.
They fiercely reaped the best dividends from the development of the powerful financial markets, creating dozens of multinational capital enterprise groups with hundreds of millions or billions of dollars!
Although they have much less influence compared to leading companies like Visio, which are worth tens of billions of dollars, these enterprise groups, whether in Hong Kong Island, Macau, Lion City, Jakarta, or in London, Frankfurt, etc., each has a clear and verifiable history of personal struggle.
It's just that they are very lucky; their businesses always encounter support from benefactors, the companies they buy are developing rapidly, and their later development will basically introduce some local tycoons to expand the scale of development, becoming local giants, even making people overlook that the founder may be a down-and-out overseas Chinese.
Because in terms of general managers and various professional personnel, those who come forward are basically all local elites of various colors, but only the founders who hold the voting rights in the board of directors are the ones who are not conspicuous.
Now, to activate these hidden dragons, it is certainly necessary to mobilize them through Chief Ye's level.
Not to mention contact with large European financial groups, which must also have official endorsement from the Eastern side.
"Which are the objects we choose to cooperate with?"
Chief Ye directly asked for the result.
"First, we recommend the Rothschild family, the Habsburg family, the Barclays family, and the Capet family.
The first, the Rothschild family, has considerable strength and potential influence.
This is a cross-European and North American international financial group, a behemoth in the Western financial world, with the ability to confront North American financial groups.
If we cooperate with them successfully, it will be a very good potential partner for our ore supply guarantee capabilities.
However, Rothschild is not an easy object to cooperate with.
They have ancient traditions, and it may not be easy for outsiders to cooperate with them.
Regarding this matter, let's see if our foreign affairs department can find a channel to invite high-level influential figures to Yandu, then I can try to persuade them."
Ren Zhong said that regarding this mysterious financial group, rumored to be the strongest family on Blue Star, the information he could access was limited to what was available from the main world. This information came not only from public networks but also from research data from a European financial research professor's team that he had paid for. Ren Zhong himself could not completely verify the authenticity of this information. For example, some research materials suggested that the Rothschild family controlled as much as 50 trillion US dollars in various assets as early as 2000, which was more than just being wealthier than a country!
Benz automobiles, major European banks, and the Suez Canal were once all assets of the Rothschild family.
Only the Second World War, which swept across Europe, caused the Rothschild family significant damage. However, with the post-war recovery, the Rothschilds experienced an unstoppable and vigorous resurgence, once again becoming major players in the Western financial market.
"Among the core figures of the contemporary Rothschilds, if we can invite Anthony, Edmund, Victor, and Edward, then I would be 70% confident in persuading them," Ren Zhong said, providing a list of the core members of the Rothschild family and their current positions.
"We'll try our best," Chief of Staff Ye said cautiously. He really didn't have much confidence in this, as it involved areas beyond his control.
"The second family, the Habsburg Consortium, originated from the traditional European royal family. Family members once became kings of major European countries and still have intricate familial ties with more than 30 royal families in the Bright Sword world. Therefore, even after losing national sovereignty, their descendants control several trust funds and wield considerable influence in the financial market. Relying on strong personal connections, the Habsburg Consortium also has the power to compete with the steel oligarchs of the Rogue Eagle. The Barclay Consortium and the Capet Consortium are similar. Although their relationship with the European upper class is not as strong as the Habsburgs, their ancestors also included nobles such as dukes and marquises, and they have deep-rooted personal connections with most of the European royal families, giving them significant influence locally," Ren Zhong continued, briefly introducing the backgrounds of the other three consortia. This was largely unknown territory for Chief of Staff Ye.
In fact, in the Bright Sword world, the East's understanding of the Western world is mostly at the national level, mainly official cooperation. Due to a lack of access to relevant information, there is currently very little awareness of the families or consortia that deeply influence the region.
They don't even recognize all the major consortia, let alone understand their backgrounds.
Now, Ren Zhong has investigated this information from the main world, cross-referenced and verified it in the Bright Sword world, and then presented it. This makes the information extremely valuable.
If it weren't for the years of close friendship between Ren Zhong and Chief of Staff Ye, such confidential information would be considered too valuable to share.
Chief of Staff Ye acted quickly.
In June, Anthony Rothschild was invited to visit Yan Du.
In a refined courtyard in Yan Du, Ren Zhong met Anthony, one of the senior partners of the contemporary Rothschilds.
"Hello, Mr. Anthony. Welcome to Dongda. I hope the magnificent Great Wall and delicious Peking duck have not disappointed you," Ren Zhong said. In this meeting, his official titles were Dean of the Dawn Research Institute and Chairman of the Steel Federation.
"Hello, Mr. Ren Zhong. Frankly speaking, if it weren't for the opportunity to meet Mr. Ren, the Great Wall and Peking duck alone would not be so attractive to me. Let's get straight to the point. If Mr. Ren Zhong wants to cooperate with us in the field of technology, the Rothschilds would be very welcoming," Anthony, who was thin but had sharp eyes, didn't follow Ren Zhong's pleasantries and went straight to the topic.
This was somewhat contrary to Ren Zhong's stereotype of the aristocratic style of Mist Capital and deviated from his expected topic direction. This change caught him off guard because it wasn't the pace he wanted.
However, Ren Zhong quickly adjusted his original communication plan and decisively cut into his own rhythm.
"Alright, I didn't expect Mr. Anthony to be interested in our technology. However, before we begin this topic, I would like to discuss the Suez Canal issue with Mr. Anthony. I think we can find many common concerns in this area. You know, the Rothschilds have invested a lot in this canal. Now, with the independence of the Pharaoh Country and the withdrawal of John Bull's troops, I'm afraid it won't be long before the Pharaoh Country reclaims sovereignty and management of the canal. If that's the case, it would be a considerable loss for the Rothschilds."
As soon as Ren Zhong finished speaking, a storm seemed to rage in Anthony's mind. Anthony Rothschild was in charge of John Bull's business. Ren Zhong's sudden prediction, although seemingly unrelated to the cooperation between the two parties, actually had a significant impact.
After all, Anthony was already one of the most powerful figures at the top of the Bright Sword world. The Rothschild's business in John Bull was not just the profits from the canal. If John Bull lost the canal, the entire country would be greatly affected. For Anthony, who was mainly engaged in finance, if the canal was really taken back by the Pharaoh as Ren Zhong said, the impact on Mist Capital's finance would probably be no less than an economic crisis!
This would directly shatter John Bull's always-weak image as a major power, triggering a large number of chain reactions and even the collapse of certain markets.
For the Rothschilds, who owned a large number of financial assets, a mishandled response to this volatility would be a disaster.
"Mr. Ren Zhong, what is the basis for your words?" Anthony asked softly after more than ten seconds of silence, disregarding the fact that this exceeded the framework of the early cooperation content.
"Of course, the post-war world is actually very clear now. John Bull, on whom you rely, has lost the strength to sit on an equal footing with the Great Goose and the Rogue Eagle. On the key node of the Pharaoh Country, the Rogue Eagle and the Great Goose will no longer agree to continue being controlled by John Bull. In this regard, these two opponents are in rare agreement.
The replacement of the tide of the times is already very obvious, but there is no doubt that John Bull will not recognize this reality, and from the current point of view, I am afraid that the Rothschilds have not recognized this reality either, and want to continue betting on both John Bull and Gaul to maintain the interests of the canal. Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but there is no such good thing now. This time, even your allies will not come to help you. They may even take the opportunity to force you to withdraw from this key node, not only making you gain nothing from the canal but also wanting to give you a chance to short you heavily in finance!
Mr. Anthony, if you agree with my point of view, then our first cooperation opportunity can begin around the ownership of the canal." Ren Zhong's words made Anthony somewhat dazed again.
It wasn't that what Ren Zhong said was so serious, but that his tone was very assertive.