Manhattan Reborn 1978

On the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii.

night~

Honolulu International Airport.

David led his family members, said goodbye enthusiastically to the people who came to see them off, boarded the private plane that Livlin came to take this time, and left~

Parking lot outside the airport hall.

Marat Poyezhnev lit himself a cigarette, looked up at the twinkling stars in the night sky, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

Yuri Orlov put his girlfriend Ava Fangtian into the car. When he saw Marat still standing not far away smoking, he walked up to him and asked.

"Should I go to your place tomorrow?"

"Then we'll go visit Mr. Davis Rice together at noon?"

"Hmm~"

Marat glanced at Kihara Nobunari, who was walking towards them behind Yuri, and said in a low voice.

"It's hard to say what the outcome will be if we just visit him like this."

"...!" Yuri understood.

The three of them combined can only be regarded as David's temporary agent in this business at best. .

If a person speaks softly, he will naturally not receive special courtesy or attention.

so. .

Marat looked at Nobunari Kihara who came closer and asked with narrowed eyes.

"How much do you know about Yasuda Doichiro?"

"Uh..." Kihara Nobunari blinked, turned his head to look at Yuri, and said after thinking for a while.

"In the 30s and 40s before I was born, the Yasuda family was one of the top chaebol families in the island country."

"But after World War II, the U.S. military took over all of Japan's banking and financial industries, especially Yasuda Bank, one of the giants of Japan's banking industry, as its main target!"

"So it wasn't until the 60s that I saw some news about the Yasuda family again in some public media."

"Many media reports said that if Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. founder Ayukawa Yoshisuke had not stepped forward and actively helped the Yasuda family reorganize the consortium centered on Fuji Bank, there would be no Fuji Consortium at all, let alone The possibility of the Yasuda family in Toyama Prefecture returning to the public eye."

"Um.."

Marat reached out and patted Yuri on the shoulder, asking him to send his girlfriend Ava Fangtian back first.

He and Kihara Nobunari were going to find Mr. Gardener to have a good chat.

. . .

more than an hour later.

In an outdoor bar near Waikiki Beach in southern Honolulu.

Mr. Gardener, who was still drunk, invited Marat, Yuri and Nobunari Kihara to raise their glasses together and presented his own wine to several "enthusiastic" dancers who were performing on the small stage not far away. Cheers and appreciation. .

"Hahaha~"

Everyone in the bar also followed the example of Mr. Gardener and the others, noisy, shouting, and laughing like "wolves crying and ghosts howling" at the beauties and dancers who were dancing even harder~

After a few glasses of wine.

Mr. Gardener asked the Marat trio: "What brings you to me?"

"..yes!"

Marat put the whiskey glass in his hand next to him, waved to the waiter, ordered half a dozen beers, and smiled.

"Tomorrow we are going to visit Mr. Donald Klein and his friend Mr. Davis Leahy to discuss cooperation."

"But the information we know is limited. If they ask some questions tomorrow..."

"Hmm~"

Mr. Gardener tilted his head and looked at Yuri and Kihara Nobunari, took out the change from his pocket and put it on the table: "Let's go, let's change places."

"..ok!"

. . .

On Waikiki Beach not far from the bar.

At this time, most tourists have left the beach to go to various entertainment venues to have fun with friends. .

Only a few lonely men and women were left "scattered" on the white beach, "complaining to each other" by the moonlight and waves~

Under some coconut trees.

Mr. Gardener took a bottle of beer from Marat's hand, sat comfortably on the beach, looked up at the stars, and said.

"Even if you don't come to me tonight..."

"Tomorrow morning, I will also go to you and inform you of some basic information."

"This investment plan has actually been planned since David was in London more than two months ago~"

"It's just that at that time, many situations were still unclear, and you were not included in the plan."

Mr. Gardener turned his head and glanced at Marat, Kihara Nobunari and Yuri, and smiled.

"So, you must have a lot of questions in your mind, but you don't know where to start...right?"

"...Yes!" Marat raised the wine bottle to Mr. Gardener and said with a smile.

Mr. Gardener put the beer bottle next to him, looked at young Yuri and Kihara Nobunari, and asked with a smile.

"ok~"

"Let me ask you a question first."

"Have you heard of the grain robbery that went viral in the media a few years ago?"

"No..." Yuri shook his head in confusion and replied honestly.

"I've heard of it~" Kihara Nobunari thought of a lot in an instant, put down the bottle of wine and came closer to Mr. Gardener, and asked.

"You want to say...?"

"Correct!"

“In 72, the grain robbery that shocked the world made many ordinary people aware of Continental, Cookindustries, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus."

"The top six international agricultural product traders!"

"When you go to the island country this time, the resistance and competitors you are most likely to encounter are international crude oil traders!"

"..."

Marat saw Kihara Nobunari lost in thought and asked.

“Who are the people or companies that we need to pay special attention to?”

"Hehe~"

Mr. Gardener raised a few fingers and replied: "When people frequently see these six companies in various media, international crude oil traders have quietly bought from oil-producing countries outside the OPEC organization. A large number of crude oil spot stocks are waiting for the outbreak of the oil crisis."

“One of the oil-producing countries outside OPEC is the Big Bear!”

“But to talk about these guys who quietly trade crude oil between countries, we have to start after World War II~”

“After World War II, the United States became the superpower with the strongest military and economy in the world.”

"It is very different from the last world superpower, Britain."

"The biggest difference is that it prefers to open its doors for business, and hopes that its domestic strong industrial productivity left over from the war will have an opportunity to occupy the world's commodity market."

“So after the war, various countries needed a large amount of commodities and materials for reconstruction + most countries relaxed their control over various commodities after the war + countries around the world ushered in a wave of economic growth more than ten years after the war. Down.."

"Global commodity traders have emerged following the trend!"

"But in the early 50s, the seven oil sisters joined forces to control most of the world's crude oil business."

"The entire industrial chain and pricing power of each barrel of crude oil from production to refining and sales are firmly controlled by them."

"At that time, there was no so-called international crude oil market, and no one dared to touch this extremely sensitive red line."

“It wasn’t until 1954, when a West German businessman named Theodore Weiser quietly went to the Great Bear Country to buy a large amount of diesel and shipped it back to Europe that a crack appeared in the monopoly of the Seven Petroleum Sisters.”

"Italy's state-owned oil company publicly condemned Theodore Weiser's shameless speculation, but its actions were very honest."

"With its beginning, the diesel in Theodore Weiser's hand was sold out in just two weeks, causing many speculators to turn their attention to the big bear country that is in urgent need of foreign exchange to develop its domestic economy~"

"In 60, in order to curb the underground trade between international crude oil traders and the bear country, the seven oil sisters decided to increase the production of refined oil to suppress trade prices."

"But their suppression plan has just been proposed, and it has met with strong opposition from the oil-producing countries in the Middle East."

“So, OPEC was born!”

Mr. Gardener picked up the wine bottle, gestured to the smiling Marat, took a sip, and continued.

"OPEC member countries have relied on exporting crude oil for their main domestic income for decades."

“The price of exported crude oil has been kept very low by the Seven Petroleum Sisters, making them no longer satisfied with the meager profits from crude oil extraction and export.”

"But their domestic weak basic industries and scarce professional and technical talents have limited their plans to rebel and become independent."

"So from 60 to 70, for a whole decade, they continued to endure, trying to find opportunities to completely get rid of the control of the Seven Sisters of Petroleum."

"This also happens to provide a very good opportunity for that group of international crude oil traders!"

Mr. Gardener put away the smile on his face, pointed to the west with the wine bottle, and whispered.

“In the past ten years, more than 3000 shell companies have popped up in a small town called Zug in southwestern Switzerland.”

“Cargill, which was exposed by the media during the Grain Heist, had several shell companies controlled by offshore companies in the small town of Zug.”