Chapter 464 Business is business
Kobayashi Ichiro smiled bitterly and said shyly, "Can you pay me back later?"
"The main reason is that the current exchange rate is too unfriendly to us."
"If we collect repayments from you now, we will lose at least 10 times more than when we took out the loan."
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "But according to the agreement, now is the time to repay the loan."
“We can’t go back on our agreement to repay the money.”
"Please prepare yourself. This time, we will transfer the money directly to your account."
"It just so happens that you need food. If not, we can convert it into food and ship it back. At least we can ensure that you won't have any trouble due to lack of food for a month or two."
Kobayashi Ichiro was helpless and had to agree: "Okay."
"Thank you, Comrade Haoran."
"I hope we can get some discount on food prices."
Wang Haoran waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about this: our prices are absolutely fair."
"We won't be like the four major grain merchants who try every possible way to drive up grain prices and then sell grain to you like it's gold."
The current food prices are still basically determined by the Eagle Lizards.
They control most of the world's food.
Whenever there is a food shortage or something like that in the world, they will hype it up.
We often see them hyping up how big the global food gap is and how many people are starving.
Then, they treated food as a strategic material, hoarding it and being reluctant to sell it.
They just want to wait until the food-deficient countries can no longer bear it, and then take advantage of the situation and sell to them at several times or even dozens of times the purchase price.
The four major grain traders made a fortune from this.
Although Jiaoben is also a member of the Eagle Lizard tribe, it has suffered a lot from food shortage over the years.
Why are the prices of grain and vegetables in Jiaoben always so high?
The main loss is that we cannot be self-sufficient and have to be exploited by international grain traders.
The foot basins are not the only ones that suffer the most from eating food. Another example is the bear.
Xiong is known for his vast land and abundant resources, and his land area is indeed quite huge, but most of his land is bitter and cold, and many of the lands can only be cultivated once a year.
They adopted a rigid and completely planned production model, which did not fully mobilize the enthusiasm and sense of responsibility of the farmers.
As a result, bears have experienced food shortages several times since the late 70s.
However, their grain production was falsely reported to be high.
On one hand, there was a claim of a bumper harvest, but on the other hand, the cities were short of food.
At this time, international oil prices were suppressed again and were very low.
Such a low oil price is not even enough to cover the cost of oil production.
Naturally, they don't have much money to import food from overseas.
By the 80s, the famine had become increasingly severe.
Who would have thought?
This is also the main reason why the dragon must always firmly grasp the basic livelihood issue of grain production and never relax.
If you have food in your hands, you won't be worried.
In recent years, Julong has cultivated many high-yield grain varieties, and grain production has increased year by year.
Nowadays, dragons have even achieved self-sufficiency and have a considerable surplus.
Of course, a lot of the surplus grain was reserved by the state.
The dragon's food reserves are the most abundant in the world.
Our grain reserves are enough to feed the entire nation for a year.
Selling some food to Jiaoben is not a problem at all, right?
In fact, an important mission for Ichiro Kobayashi to come here this time is that he wants the dragon to support him with food.
Because they had just fallen out with the Eagle, it was no longer possible for Jiaoben to import food from the Lizard.
Even if the Lizards were willing to sell, they would not be able to accept the price as the food price was simply too high.
Wang Haoran said that he could give the foot basin a fair price for the food, but Kobayashi Ichiro was a little bit unconvinced.
Because Wang Haoran's behavior just now has shown that this person is suspected of taking advantage of the situation.
"Can you tell me the approximate price?" asked Ichiro Kobayashi.
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "Do you know what the current international price of wheat is?"
Kobayashi Ichiro's heart immediately rose to his throat.
Holy shit! Are we really going to be given food at the international price?
That's a bit unacceptable.
"Oh, internationally, the international grain prices are a bit inflated now. It's all because of the speculation by the four major grain traders."
"Comrade Haoran, we are comrades and good friends."
"Look, you can't give us too high a price, right?"
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "International grain prices are indeed being hyped up quite a lot."
"But there is indeed a global food shortage right now."
"But we still have to talk about friendship!"
"So, the price we give you is only two-thirds of the international grain price. See, aren't we taking good care of you?"
The current international food prices are about three or four times higher than in previous years.
For example, the price of wheat was only around RMB 0.4 per kilogram three years ago.
Now, the price has risen to 2.1 yuan per kilogram.
The price of grain in Julong is not too low now, about 1.2 yuan per kilogram.
This is also to avoid farmers suffering from low grain prices.
Food prices must not be too low.
If it is too low, farmers will lose their motivation and a food crisis may occur.
Therefore, domestic food prices must be maintained at a reasonable level.
Ichiro Kobayashi thinks the price is still a bit high.
Even if it is priced at two-thirds of the international price, it is still 1.4 yuan per kilogram.
At this price, Ichiro Kobayashi calculated that 9 million RMB could only buy more than 6 million kilograms of food.
There are more than 100 million people in the entire basin.
Each person can only get more than 6 kilograms of food, which is not enough for a few days.
Wang Haoran laughed and said, "It has already dropped by one third!"
Comrade Kobayashi, even if we are comrades and friends, we still have to follow the market price.
"If we give you a price that is too low, I think the Chinese people will be unhappy and dissatisfied."
"You actually have quite a few resources in your country. For example, your forest resources are quite abundant."
"My suggestion is: you can export wood to us."
"We still have a relatively large demand for wood now."
In the past, in the 70s, in order to earn foreign exchange, the dragon exported a lot of raw materials such as coal, timber, and oil to Jiaoben.
Quite a lot of short essays have been written about this matter.
Some said that the coal that Jiaoben imported from Julong was not used up and was stored on the seabed of Dongjing Bay.
Some people even said that the coal filled in the seabed of Dongjing Bay was enough to last for a hundred years.
Now, the situation has reversed, and it's time to export raw materials to the dragon.
Kobayashi Ichiro had no choice but to say, "No problem, we can export a large amount of timber."
"In fact, we also have some precious metal deposits. We can still dig them out if we dig."
Foot Basin was once the most important gold and silver producing country in the world.
Their gold and silver were produced for more than two hundred years.
Later, when Jiaoben became prosperous, they closed the gold and silver mines to avoid pollution. In fact, they had been digging for many years and had almost exhausted the proven reserves.
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "Sure! Your gold and silver mines have good reserves. Most importantly, your gold and silver mines are relatively easy to mine."
Kobayashi Ichiro said: "We will do our best to mine, and we will supply you as long as you need it."
Wang Haoran nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, don't worry, Comrade Xiaolin, we can help you solve the food problem! Help you get through this difficult time!"
"Don't think that we are taking advantage of you at the price of 1.4 yuan per kilogram."
"The price of grain in our country has now reached 1.2 yuan per kilogram."
"Besides, we provide subsidies to farmers for growing grain. With the subsidies, the price is almost the same as the price we give you."
"If we weren't close to you, do you think we could have given you this price?"
Kobayashi Ichiro quickly apologized and said, "Thank you, thank you so much."
He felt that he couldn't ask for too much.
After all, the dragon doesn't owe anything.
"In addition, we would like to obtain the improved grain varieties you have cultivated. Is that ok?"
"I've heard that you can produce tons of rice per acre. If you can have such high yields, we can almost be self-sufficient."
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "There is no problem with this."
"I can sell you the rice seeds."
"We actually have sea rice that we have cultivated, and the yield is not low, but the taste may be a little worse."
"Do you want it?"
Kobayashi Ichiro said without hesitation: "Yes! Of course."
"Our first priority now is to feed the people of our country."
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "Then I'll give you the sea rice as well."
"I think the food problem has been solved. What do you think, Comrade Kobayashi?"
Kobayashi Ichiro quickly smiled and said, "If it can be implemented properly, there should be no problem."
“The food problem is indeed a big problem.”
Wang Haoran nodded and said, "It's not easy to feed more than 100 million people."
"Comrade Kobayashi has really put in a lot of thought!"
"To be honest, I still admire you very much!"
Kobayashi Ichiro said: "It's even harder for you! There are more than a billion of you!"
"It's not easy for a country as big as yours, with so many people, to have developed to this level!"
“We admire you even more.”
Wang Haoran smiled and said: "As long as we truly put the people at the center, the development of the country should not be a problem."
"The biggest problem in today's world is that a small number of people have taken away the most resources and benefits. The uneven distribution has resulted in the people's wealth being taken away by a small group of people, leaving the majority of people unable to survive."
“The issue we need to focus on in the future is actually just one word: fairness!”
Kobayashi Ichiro nodded: "Now I have truly realized that fairness is the most important thing in this world!"
"Comrade Haoran, we, we actually have a certain industrial foundation, and our technology has a fairly good foundation in the world."
"I came here this time hoping to get some support."
"Comrade Haoran, don't worry. We will never become your competitors."
"We just hope to get a chance to provide support for you."
"We will definitely do our best and will never let you down."
Ichiro Kobayashi made another request.
China was once one of the most important industrial countries in the world.
How could they give up developing industry?
However, Ichiro Kobayashi also knew that Foot Basin must not show any ambition to compete with the dragon.
People will definitely be on guard.
No matter what, you can't cultivate a competitor for yourself, right?
Ichiro Kobayashi's request was a bit cautious.
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "This is negotiable."
"I can help you restore some of your industry and improve your lives a little bit."
Ichiro Kobayashi was overjoyed when he heard this.
He even wanted to kneel down and kowtow to Wang Haoran at this moment.
"Thank you, thank you, Comrade Haoran."
"Thank you so much."
"We are having a really hard time right now."
Ichiro Kobayashi was about to cry.
"You're welcome. I want to thank you, too. You did a great job in the foot basin."
"Well! I think you still have to keep working hard and suppress extreme thoughts!"
"Make sure to clean up all that fucking garbage!"
"I still have high expectations of you."
Kobayashi Ichiro quickly assured: "Don't worry! Everything is going according to plan!"
"The most reactionary guys will be eliminated."
"We need to address extreme thinking at its root."
"In addition, we also intend to further integrate with you in depth."
"We will require all citizens to learn Chinese well and strive to achieve full Sinicization."
“I hope we can become a real family.”
This statement is quite sincere.
Wang Haoran smiled and said, "Well! Let's work hard together!"
Just like that, Wang Haoran and Kobayashi Ichiro basically reached an agreement.
Ichiro Kobayashi was very happy.
When he came, he was in a very heavy mood.
But now, the mood has basically relaxed.
Afterwards, accompanied by Wang Haoran, he visited several factories of Pangu Technology.
Ichiro Kobayashi was filled with emotion every time he visited a place.
Especially when he visited the chip production workshop, his feelings became even stronger.
The chip industry used to be China's strong point.
Chips were first developed by Giant Eagle and developed rapidly in the 60s.
The development of the chip industry has also promoted the development of the electronics industry and the home appliance industry!
Although Jiaoben is a latecomer, it has developed the fastest in the chip industry.
Later, even a complete chip industry chain was developed.
If it weren't for the Eagle's tyrannical demolition and forced relocation, perhaps the foot basin would not have fallen to its current state.
Chips are so important!
It can empower almost all industries.
The more sophisticated the electronic machinery industry is, the more it needs better chips.
It would be great if we could develop chips again.
However, the dragon obviously will not allow this important industry to be shared by others, right?
Kobayashi Ichiro couldn't help but ask: "Comrade Haoran, can we do some chip supporting industry for you?"
"Chips are also considered labor-intensive high-tech, and we have some experience in this area."
After Kobayashi Ichiro finished speaking, he looked at Wang Haoran eagerly.
He really wanted to get a chance to get some chip matching. (End of this chapter)