Mediterranean hegemon

Contini smiled slightly: "Bet whether he can become the commander of the Combined Fleet or the Minister of the Navy within 12 years! If I win, he will come to be my naval advisor; if I lose, I will compensate him with a cruiser plus 100 of the most advanced Italian aircraft at that time!"

"Commander of the Combined Fleet? What kind of position is this?"

"It is equivalent to the commander-in-chief of our navy."

Agnese smiled and covered her mouth: "This is quite difficult. He hasn't even become a general yet? It is really difficult to become the commander-in-chief of the navy in 12 years. How could he agree to bet with you? Either he is arrogant or arrogant."

Contini shrugged: "Who knows him? Maybe this is called confidence!"

Regarding the bet, Hori Teikichi wrote to his close friend Yamamoto Isoroku: "I recently made a bet with the richest man in Italy, who may also be ranked in the top ten richest people in the world, whether I can become the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet within 12 years. The fleet commander or the naval minister can get a cruiser and 100 advanced aircraft if he wins, which is a lot of money! If he loses, I promise to be his advisor, but I have added a restriction, I have to wait until I am transferred to the reserve... You know, even if I can't achieve this goal and lose the bet, it will take at least 20 years to transfer to the reserve, so this is a sure bet! Come back early and see if you can still bet with him..."

Theoretically, Hori Teikichi's chance of winning this bet is 99%, because Yamamoto Isoroku became the commander of the Combined Fleet within 12 years, and his ranking is lower than Hori Teikichi. If Hori Teikichi is there, he must be higher. Even if he loses the bet, it's no big deal. It's also good to retire at the age of 65 and enjoy life as a consultant in the Mediterranean - but there are always small probabilities in the world. Only Contini knows that Hori Teikichi will be knocked down to earth by the Okata personnel and die early in 5 years.

In fact, he played this time after seeing the bottom card. Even if he lost, it didn't matter - it was just a cruiser and 100 planes!

Since both parties had basically agreed on the idea of ​​exchanging oil for raw silk, they signed a formal contract in less than 5 days. The contract was for a period of 10 years and could be renewed with the unanimous consent of both parties. The scale of the first 5 years was 2 million tons per year and the scale of the second 5 years was 4 million tons per year. However, when determining the exchange price, the Japanese side played a little trick. As a result, the international market price was unstable. They required both parties to use the international market average price of the previous three months as the transaction price for each delivery - their wishful thinking was that the oil price was relatively stable and the price of raw silk had a vague upward trend in the past two years. Contini smiled and agreed.

This was the second time that the bottom card was seen. After the economic collapse in 1929, the price of Japanese raw silk once fell by three quarters and could not be sold in the international market. Although the price of crude oil also fell sharply, now United Oil has established a tacit oil stabilization system with the United States, so it will not fall sharply at that time.

After Contini crude oil successfully supported the market, the United Group became famous in the capital market. Everyone believed that the so-called capped and guaranteed prices had a stable basis, and they felt more at ease. The United States also saw the benefits of this system and signed a memorandum with United Petroleum, agreeing to cooperate in storage, but because of concerns about the interference of antitrust laws, they could only adopt a tacit understanding and could not formally sign a contract. The United Group readily agreed to this, and finally the two sides announced the price stabilization system on different occasions. The United States used Texas crude oil as the benchmark price, and Italy used Libyan oil as the benchmark price. The guaranteed purchase price is still $1, but the selling price has increased to $1.5 as the market heats up, and it is agreed that this price will be adjusted according to the US dollar index.

This mature system is the international crude oil pricing system that has been maintained for nearly 15 years, until the outbreak of the war!

Who has taken advantage of this system? In fact, it is a win-win for both buyers and sellers! Buyers can estimate the basic expenses for one year in advance, and sellers can lock in the cost and market for one year. Moreover, since the price is stable, there will not be much supply gap, which will curb the surge. The surge and plunge may not necessarily transfer money to the exporter and importer, and speculators can make money. Therefore, after the introduction of this stable pricing system, it becomes meaningless to speculate in crude oil. There is a tight ring on both sides! Contini's United Group controlled two of the top five oil producing areas in the world at that time, and considering that the second-ranked Baku crude oil was also of great use to the Soviet Union, Contini actually controlled two of the top four. After he went to the Far East, the US and French banking circles began negotiations on the Libyan oil field shares. Antonio's price was 70 million US dollars for 10%, and the US and France both countered with 60 million US dollars. The attitudes of both sides were very friendly, but the price could not be negotiated. It didn't matter if they couldn't reach an agreement. Antonio made a satellite announcement on January 1, increasing the oil storage level of Libya's oil fields by 20%. At the same time, he announced that the output would be increased to 8,000 tons/day. The output of the Algerian oil fields at that time was 15,000 tons/day, and he said that the output of the Libyan oil fields in 1928 would eventually increase to more than 12,000 tons/day!

This figure shocked both the United States and France. They immediately reacted and prepared to accept the price of 70 million US dollars. But at this time, 70 million US dollars could no longer be bought. Antonio announced that the price had been raised to 78 million US dollars, and then there was another round of arduous negotiations. Just when the two sides were about to agree on the figure of US$75 million, the exploration team once again disclosed 15% more new oil fields and reserves, and drilled two high-yield wells No. 29 and No. 33, which can produce more than 1,000 tons per day.

This means that the 12,000 tons plan announced by Antonio does not have to wait until the end of the year, but can be realized before June! Therefore, the new price is now raised to $85 million. Wall Street and the French Financial Street are all hating it, but there is nothing they can do about it - they have increased their production reserves, so if they don't raise prices, are they waiting for everyone to take advantage?

Antonio is not worried at all that the shares cannot be sold, because he still has two flashpoints that have not been detonated - the first flashpoint is that Libya has as much crude oil reserves as Algeria (actually more), and the second flashpoint is the joint Oil (Algeria) is on the market. To paraphrase Contini, the price will be pushed up step by step, giving the market ample room for imagination.

The market has indeed responded. Union Bank's stock price has stubbornly risen by 17% on the already unattainable level of $3, breaking through the $3.5 mark. Investors' values ​​are very simple - new crude oil development sites. If it is found, then for example, it needs loans to build more facilities and tankers, which means the spring of Union Bank.

Sure enough, Leo used the appreciated shares as collateral and took away another US$200 million from the United States - called Libyan Oil Development Bonds, with an annual interest rate of 5.1%. Investors flocked to it, and the subscription multiple exceeded 7 times! Stimulated by this situation, even Contini's signing of an oil swap agreement with Japan was regarded as a good thing. Wall Street tycoons were gearing up and waiting for Algeria's oil shares to be listed in March.

The intelligence reported by Horikichi about Italy's willingness to sell torpedo bombers also excited the top brass of the Navy, because currently, except for the United States and Italy, no other country has torpedo bombers. Japan has long wanted to import them from the United States, but the Americans insist that the price is high. , but cannot keep up with their own development speed - now that the aircraft carrier Akagi has been commissioned and Kaga is about to be commissioned (in March), finding a suitable torpedo attack aircraft has become a top priority.

Contini knew that the earliest torpedo aircraft of the Japanese Navy was the Type 89 ship-based attack aircraft, which was a Japanese license-produced version of the product imported by Mitsubishi Corporation from the British Blackburn Company. But now that United Airlines has it, there is no problem for the British. , you can still make a lot of money by selling it to Japan.

Therefore, on February 24, the two parties happily signed a patent transfer and license price with a total value of 3.4 million US dollars. This joint defense vote alone made a profit of more than 2 million US dollars - of course it should be given to New York. Souvenirs had to be given away, and senior officials such as the Navy Ministry and the Military Command were full of praise for this. Even Horikichi, who recommended the business, also received attention. A certain boss patted him on the shoulder and said that he would be considered for promotion this year. As a major general.

In addition to airplanes, Contini came with the ship. The majestic Fast and Furious two-wheeled motorcycles and United Forces sidecar motorcycles were also taken a fancy by the Japanese. They wanted to introduce them. What was even more interesting was that the Navy came to discuss it. The Army also came to talk once - but each side kept it secret from the other, or they didn't want to talk to each other at all.

Both the army and the navy expressed satisfaction with the price and performance. The only expectation is whether the sidecar can be changed from the right side to the left side - because Japan's traffic direction is opposite to Italy's customary traffic direction (so it often appears in anti-war dramas The scenes of Japanese sidecar motorcycles are all wrong. For standard Japanese products, the sidecars are all on the left side. The ones on the right side can only be explained by the products seized to the Kuomintang. But where did the Kuomintang come from so many sidecars? Fighting motorcycles?)

Contini agreed to produce a left-hand sidecar product with exactly the same performance, exclusively for Japan, so the Army and Navy happily signed the contract and left. The same product and technology were sold twice by the United Group! Zakaria, who followed Contini throughout the whole journey, said it was completely unbelievable, but the president smiled: "This is Japan!"

This business is equivalent to cutting off the products of the American Harley company. Historically, Japan has copied American products, but now it has begun to imitate Italian products.

Horikichi later learned that both the army and navy had bled, so he shook his head and sighed: "This is the president! Don't think that the president is young, he is shrewd! How can a young man under 30 years old have such a big career without great skills?" possible?"

On March 5, the Contini fleet left Japan and prepared to cross the Pacific to the United States. Before departure, he met Isoroku Yamamoto, who had just returned from the United States...