King

"Da da da……"

With the sound of turning gears, the carriage moved forward slowly.

"Becca, speed up, we must reach the mountain territory today!"

The old man's words made the driver who was driving the carriage slightly stunned, and the whip in his hand stopped in the air.

"Master, please don't worry! If the road behind here is so easy, we will be able to reach the mountain territory this afternoon."

After reacting, Beca hurriedly replied.

"Um!"

After getting the exact answer, the old man's face looked much better. As a sharp-sighted businessman, he sees problems much further than ordinary people.

He noticed the Near East Development Bank as soon as it opened. Because of Hudson's reputation, he boldly opened an account and deposited two thousand gold coins even though his future was uncertain.

Originally, I wanted to sell a good deal to Hudson and make him a familiar face. It's a pity that the status gap between the two parties is too big. A small customer with only two thousand gold coins is not worthy of Mr. Hudson's attention at all.

The world is such a reality, and there is nothing Tamer can do about it. Wanting to get on the line with Hudson was forced by circumstances.

As his business continued to develop and expand, it turned out that the owner behind the scenes was almost unable to support him, and he urgently needed to find a new backer.

It is not easy to take this step. There are many merchants who want to join the nobles. There's nothing extraordinary about it, and you can't even get through the door.

"Father, why are you in such a hurry? Even if it's a day or two at night, it won't affect anything!"

The boy on the side asked doubtfully.

It is true that doing business requires efficiency, but the current situation is different. Under the "money shortage" crisis, there is no business to do at all.

Prices continue to fall, so you can make a profit if you buy now. Almost all merchants in the kingdom are deliberately reducing their inventory.

Affected by the panic, no one knew where he was. What everyone can do is: wait and see the situation and wait for opportunities.

"No, Jack.

What we have to fight for is these two days!

The funds of the Near East Development Bank are not unlimited. In the context of the "money shortage" crisis, it will become harder to obtain loans as time goes by.

Under the same conditions, we cannot compete with the noble Lord when applying for a commercial loan.

The price decline has begun to accelerate. The current situation is that whoever has cash in hand will be able to make a fortune in the coming changes.

When everyone realizes this, nothing will happen to us! "

Tamer said with a serious expression.

This is a big gamble. If you make a mistake in judgment and make the wrong bet, you may not be able to earn back the interest on the capital loan.

There is no problem in buying high and selling low, the key is the speed of payment. For ordinary businessmen, having a large backlog of payments for a long time can be very fatal.

This means that the time to end the game must be chosen right. Too early or too late, and you may suffer heavy losses.

"Father, I remember you said: Only do business within your ability.

We are not aristocrats, and we cannot get the most favorable interest rates. Even if we can lend money, the cost of funds we need to pay will not be low.

Even if we can make a lot of money, using our connections to grab food from a tiger's mouth, I'm afraid..."

Before Jack could finish speaking, Tamer interrupted: "My child, you have indeed grown up and are not blinded by the immediate interests.

You are right, some money cannot be earned. Many times, money is the original sin.

In recent years, we have performed too well and have been targeted. If you don’t want to be swallowed whole by others, you must find a way to save yourself.

I'm going to mortgage all the hot deals in my hands to the Near East Development Bank!

Including subsequent business, we will also use loans to do it. Even if there is no shortage of money, loans will not stop. "

Hearing this answer, Jack was completely stunned. He never expected that his father would actually resort to devious ways of pulling the tiger's skin.

Once the property is mortgaged to the Near East Development Bank, it will be difficult for the outside world to pry into it. There are not many people in the entire kingdom who dare to take food from Master Hudson.

The capital interest cost paid for this is equivalent to paying protection fees.

With banks providing cover, no one can figure out how much money they make.

It's useless even if someone peeps, the money is lying inside the Near East Development Bank. In addition to daily operating funds, most of the wealth is the numbers on the magic crystal card.

Magic Crystal Cards are all real-name cards. If you grab them, you can't withdraw the money. You can't force them to go to the bank to withdraw money!

What's the difference between coercing customers into withdrawing money and directly robbing a bank? No one in their right mind would dare to commit suicide like this.

In this way, the biggest problem is to bet on the credibility of the Near East Development Bank, or in other words, on the integrity of Mr. Hudson.

Thanks to the good reputation gained over many years of operation, the name of Hudson is still very popular in the southeastern province. How could aristocratic paragons who didn't even engage in land annexation attempt to acquire their little property?

At least in the past few years, everyone has never heard of the story of the Koslow family's robbery.

Even if you want to rob, you are still robbing the orcs. The upstarts of the Koslow family were either pioneering in the Near East or taking root in northern Xinjiang.

Apart from the legal inheritance of territory, there was no deliberate expansion of fiefdoms in the province. Reputation and credibility are both powerful in the industry.

Early the next morning, Tamer and his party went straight to the branch of the Near East Development Bank. When he arrived at the scene and looked at the people lining up, he fell silent.

As a bank that only deals with high-end customers, it only has scattered customers every day. When has this kind of scene ever happened?

There is no way, there are too many smart people. After realizing the spread of the "money shortage" crisis, everyone's first reaction was to raise cash.

Judging from the annual interest rate, the interest rate of the Near East Development Bank is indeed not low, but after splitting it into months, it is really not high.

Not everyone is like Tamer, who needs to use tiger skin to protect themselves from disasters. More people just borrow money for a short-term turnover.

The monthly interest rate is less than two points, and there is no lower loan than this in the entire Aslant continent.

If the Near East Development Bank hadn't required collateral for lending and had strict review procedures, I'm afraid there would have been no money to lend.

On the third floor, looking at the people queuing below, Rudolph's forehead began to sweat. Only then did he realize that it was not a good thing that the business was too good.

The bank can use the review as an excuse to delay the loan, but it cannot delay the loan for a long time.

Lending a loan is very simple, but the prerequisite is that there is money in the vault. Due to lack of experience, banks have issued a large amount of loans a few days ago.

These customers who are coming now are ordinary businessmen whose news is lagging behind. Those who are well-informed start to reserve cash flow long before the autumn harvest.

Those who came before were all high-quality customers who had sufficient collateral and met the bank's lending standards. The staff directly released the loans after reviewing them.

The business volume has increased, but the sequelae is that the bank's cash reserves continue to decline. Even if some customers leave their money in the bank, others choose to withdraw cash.

In order to reduce the loss of cash, the staff worked hard to sell golden tickets to customers. Fortunately, businessmen who are more capable of accepting new things are mostly able to accept gold tickets from the Near East Development Bank. This is different for conservative nobles, who only accept cash.

The capital adequacy ratio limit stipulated by Hudson was approaching, and Rudolf, as the person in charge, also had a severe headache.

"President, Baron Ezekiel is here to visit. Originally we were going to send him away, but he claimed to be your old friend."

Hearing the word "old friend", Rudolf's scalp went numb. It turns out that having more friends makes traveling easier, but now he is most afraid of meeting friends.

No matter how good his connections are, he still works for Mr. Hudson. After finally getting to his current position, he didn't want to involve himself in it just to sell favors.

"Please!"

No matter what, everyone is here, and they must meet each other.

Similar scenes have been encountered every day since returning to the mountain territory.

Everyone knows that he is back, even if they want to excuse his absence. Even if I use busy work as an excuse, people are still willing to wait.

It’s destined to be unavoidable, so just accept it.

I have so many friends, mainly due to the nature of my work. Rudolph initially helped Hudson sell arms, and his job was to deal with people.

Then he was transferred to the position of Minister of Commerce, which is also a position with wide connections. With the platform provided by Hudson, it is difficult to have few friends.

The first time I came into contact with Baron Ezekiel was through selling weapons.

At that time, Baron Ezekiel also had a great time. He once organized a confrontation between the local nobles and the northern nobles who went south, and even took advantage of it.

It's a pity that this good life did not last for a few days before it suffered a huge defeat. If it weren't for the protection mechanism of nobles in the Aslant continent, he himself would be in disgrace.

This is the fate of a small noble. After one failure, Baron Ezekiel never got up from the quagmire.

Including the noble children of the North who used to be famous in the past, they have now become invisible to everyone!

It's not that their abilities are weak, but that the opportunities of the times have passed. No matter how strong an individual's ability is, he cannot compete with the general trend.

Unpopular with the royal government and hostile to the nobles of the southeastern provinces, in order to preserve his foundation, he had no choice but to join Hudson's army in a low-key manner.

Including several people who had achieved military exploits, they were eventually exposed and accused of having liaisons with orcs. It was only because of Hudson's intervention that they were able to "atone for their sins."

Baron Ezekiel is better, he doesn't have so much dark history, and he doesn't attract much hatred. After the territorial military strength was wiped out, life was just a little bit harder.

One step is slow, each step is slow.

If he doesn't have enough strength in his hands, his subsequent military exploits will naturally not be his share. At most, after the troops' victory, they would make some minor achievements in exchange for some verbal praise from the kingdom.

When they meet again, their status has been reversed. The salesman who once went around doing door-to-door sales has now become a baron.

Although the title was awarded by Hudson and its gold content was lower, he could not help but still hold an important position under Mr. Ha.

Whether it is social status or actual power, Baron Ezekiel is not comparable to it now.

After a few simple greetings, we got straight to the point.

"Your Excellency, the Near East is undergoing large-scale development. It should still need a lot of food, right?"

Baron Ezekiel asked slightly nervously.

He has been rejected many times in recent days. Neither the grain merchants nor the nobles who went to the Near East to open up wasteland had the intention to purchase grain.

“There is indeed a food gap in the Near East, but the demand may not be as great as you think.

The kingdom has agreed to collect taxes in kind, and the food required by the Near East garrison and frontline construction workers does not need to be purchased from outside sources.

If the money shortage crisis continues and everyone pays taxes in kind, the royal government may even have excess grain to sell.

Your Excellency, the current food market is not very good. It is difficult to get a good price for the food on hand at this time.

It is better to store the grain first and wait and see the market situation. The money crisis will eventually pass. "

Rudolf spoke to comfort him.

Everything is true. Xueyue Ling will indeed purchase grain, but that will be after the price of grain drops sharply.

Now the noble lords are still holding on to it. The price of food on the market has dropped by less than ten points. Unlike other commodities, many of them are discounted by 20 or 20%.

Selling grain under this background will definitely result in a high price.

"Your Excellency, if there is a choice, why should I be so anxious?

I don’t know why, but from the end of the war to now, food prices have been bad.

I thought the same way before, as long as we can survive the money shortage crisis. Last year, I only sold a small amount of stored grain, and the rest was piled in the warehouse.

I never expected that the situation would be even more severe this year. It’s as if the food consumption market has shrunk all of a sudden! "

After listening to Baron Ezekiel, Rudolph secretly shook his head.

The decline in food consumption in the kingdom is not due to population decline, but mainly to the rapid development of fisheries.

Fish is also meat. As long as the price is cheap enough, it will inevitably have an impact on the grain market.

What's even worse is that even if the price of fish and meat is reduced, the profits from fishing are still huge. The nobles in coastal areas are basically vigorously developing fisheries.

After the fish and meat entered the market, the freedmen were so excited that they could finally see the meat. As a result, food consumption in most cities in the kingdom has shown a downward trend.

Some changes may not impact the market, but when the crisis of money shortage is superimposed and the contradiction is artificially magnified, the situation will be different.

Now the only hope for the agricultural aristocrats is the Near East, a large consumer of grain. Otherwise, they can only pile it up in the warehouse.

Life and death crises aside, no nobleman has ever gone bankrupt because of a good harvest.

It's just that the nobles who can't make money for a while and hope to use their income from growing grains to do other things will be in tragedy.

"If His Excellency the Baron really wants to sell grain, I can help you get involved, but you need to negotiate the specific price yourself.

Generally speaking, territory transactions will follow market conditions. The final price given will most likely not satisfy you!

If you can accept the deferred golden ticket, then the price can be slightly negotiated.

You can rest assured about the security of the Golden Ticket. The deferred gold tickets issued by the Near East Development Bank can be used to purchase any product in Shandiling. The face value and gold coins are locked, and there is no risk of depreciation.

If it is not used, you can take the gold ticket to our bank to exchange it for cash after it expires. "

Rudolph said slowly.

From the early days of his business, Hudson had the habit of hoarding food, which he continues to do today.

It's just that today is different from the past. The mountainous territories where large tracts of farmland have been developed have long been self-sufficient in food.

An important factor in the slow sales of grain in the southeastern province is that the largest buyer in the grain market has reduced grain purchases since last year.

Even if we collect grain now, it is still strategic grain storage. Such purchases that are not urgently needed are usually made when food prices are at their lowest.

However, in order to promote the Golden Ticket, some concessions are acceptable. A short-term extension of the Golden Ticket will not bring a lot of benefits, but it can help the Golden Ticket build credibility.

Changing people's habits cannot be done overnight. Now we just let them try it. After they have the experience of using the golden ticket for the first time, they will be so repelled by using it in the future.

It is unrealistic to shake the gold and silver standard, but it is still possible to join this system.

…

On Xueyue Lake, Hudson was boating on the lake with a group of heads of chambers of commerce.

Apart from the chatter and laughter when they first boarded the ship, the subsequent scenes seemed a bit serious. Everyone is here for what Hudson calls "big business," and they don't have time to chat here.

"Tom, distribute the information to all the guests!"

Hudson said pretending to be nonchalant.

If given the choice, he really doesn’t want to find someone to raise funds. But there is no way, the Near East Development Bank needs too much capital.

In the early stage, Hudson could still inject it himself, but if it develops to a later stage, the hole will not be filled by him.

All financing strategies are the same, a beautiful statement and a tempting story.

As for the leakage of the business model and the emergence of competitors, Hudson doesn't care at all.

They all came out to cheat and raise funds, so of course they were chosen, so who was so stupid as to note the risks?

If we take it for granted and follow suit and copy this business model in other parts of the mainland, we will most likely be able to make money in the early stage, but it will be a question of how we will die in the later stage.

In the face of interests, few people can control greed. As a bank without any legal constraints, after ending the era of barbaric financial enclosure, if nothing happens, Hudson can write his name backwards.

Time passed by, and everyone was watching carefully. The further we scrolled, the more shocked the expressions on everyone's faces became.

"Marshal Hudson, the Near East Development Bank is so profitable, you don't need to involve us, right?"

Wulfdek asked doubtfully.

Profitable business is never easy to give away.

Judging from the book data alone, in the past five months, the book profit of the Near East Development Bank has reached as high as 140,000 gold coins, and it is still growing crazily.

Judging from the current growth rate, the total profit will exceed 350,000 gold coins by the end of the year.

The profit estimate for next year has reached an astonishing range of between 800,000 gold coins and 2 million gold coins. The range of numbers is so big that it seems like a joke.

"Mr. Wolfdock, the Near East Development Bank is indeed very profitable, but the Kingdom is experiencing a money shortage!

Under normal circumstances, we only need to absorb savings and lend money to make huge profits. Unfortunately, savers now have no money.

However, difficulties are temporary, and the money shortage is not big news to the kingdom.

After almost every war, there will be money shortages of varying degrees, but this time the impact is wider.

As long as we get through these difficult years, the road ahead will be smooth.

Originally, I also wanted to shrink the pace and slow down the development of the bank. It’s just that time waits for no one. If you can’t seize the market quickly, competitors will appear.

There are many people staring at the Near East Development Bank, including you, I am afraid. If it weren’t for the lack of clarity on the profit model, I’m afraid someone would have followed suit.

Money cannot be earned by one person. Instead of diluting profits in competition, it is better for us to join forces and share huge profits together! "

Hudson said hard.

Huge profits or not, that is a matter of the future. The problem now is that the Near East Development Bank is running out of money to lend.

Either increase the leverage ratio or reduce the scale of lending, but neither of these is what Hudson wants.