Chapter 62 Mitsui challenged the emperor and fell into the "dollar arbitrage trap"

If Japan achieves a republican government, Mitsui and Mitsubishi will definitely be candidates for the presidency. 【5】Mitsui supported the Emperor, and the Emperor did not treat Mitsui badly.After the Meiji Restoration, the rapid rise of the Mitsui Zaibatsu was unthinkable without the support of the government. In 1888, the Meiji government publicly auctioned the Miike coal mine. The bidders included four private companies including Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Everyone was looking for connections behind their backs to win this big business.Finance Minister Matsukata Masayoshi decided that the auction price should not be lower than 4.5 million yen, if not, he would resign and the cabinet may be dissolved.

Mitsui is determined to win the Miike Coal Mine, and they find Mitsui's top adviser and political tycoon Kaoru Inoue to open up the relationship.Kaoru Inoue merged her own product company with Mitsui to form the current "Mitsui Company", and the two sides formed an indissoluble bond.After Inoue Kaoru greeted the government department, the coal mine and Mitsui Bank conducted secret negotiations to finalize the details.Then the government suddenly announced that Miike Coal Mine was sold to Mr. Sasaki who came out of nowhere for 4.55 million yen. Of course Sasaki represented Mitsui.After that, Mitsui won the Miike Coal Mine with a deposit of only 1 million yen, and paid the balance in 15 years.

Less than a year after Mitsui bought Miike Coal Mine, it not only recovered the cost of 4.55 million yen, but also made a lot of money.According to a conservative estimate, the coal mine can be mined for 50 years, which will bring Mitsui a profit of 450 million yen, which is 400 times the initial investment of 1 million yen as a deposit!This can be regarded as the largest "loss of state-owned assets" case in Japanese history! 【6】The successful operation of Miike Coal Mine is inseparable from the returnee technical genius group that Mitsui retained with high salaries.Tuan Zhuomo graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After he took office, he lived up to expectations. He used the large-scale water pump technology he had just learned abroad to solve the problem of coal mine drainage and greatly increased coal production.Because of Tuan Takuma's management and technical talents, the profit of Miike Coal Mine actually surpassed that of Mitsui Bank and was comparable to that of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.Miike Coal Mine is called "Mitsui's Portable Safe".Tuan Takuma also quickly rose to become the president of Mitsui, with an annual salary of 300,000 yen, crowned Japan's "Emperor of Migrant Workers".It's a pity that his brilliant life came to an abrupt end because of the "dollar arbitrage trap". 【7】With the successful acquisition of Miike Coal Mine, the focus of Mitsui’s operations has shifted from commercial and financial industries to industrial sectors. Plutocrats in various industries.

The "New York Times" described Mitsui in 1922: There has never been such an organization in Western civilization.The Rothschild family, which is only engaged in the financial industry, is very ordinary compared with the Mitsui Zaibatsu.Mitsui is the richest consortium in the Eastern world, controlling mines, banks, railways, shipping, factories and trading companies. "As rich as Mitsui" means endless wealth to the Japanese, just as Americans dream of "as rich as Rockefeller". [8] The big chaebols not only control the economic lifeline of the country, but also collude with elders, bureaucrats, and warlords to manipulate political parties and influence political power.At that time, several major political parties in Japan had their own "God of Wealth" standing behind them.Kaoru Inoue, the veteran of the Political Friends Association, is known as "Mitsui's big shopkeeper". The core figures Yamamoto Jotaro and Mori Ke have close ties with the Mitsui Zaibatsu, while the president of the Reform Party Shigenobu Okuma and the president of the Constitutional Party Kato Takaaki have close ties to the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu , the latter became the son-in-law of Mitsubishi founder Iwasaki.These people have been the most active political figures in Japan since the end of the 19th century, becoming agents of the Zaibatsu and serving the interests of the Zaibatsu.

In 1927, an unprecedentedly serious financial crisis occurred in Japan, and banks went bankrupt due to runs.Minister of Finance Takahashi Shikiyoshi issued an emergency decree, announcing that all banks across the country would suspend currency exchange for three weeks, and the Bank of Japan would issue extraordinary loans of 2.2 billion yen to major banks, and the government would subsidize 700 million yen to help monopoly financial capital cross the border. We're through.Subsequently, the government revised the "Bank Law", raising the capital threshold for opening banks to 1 million yen, forcing and accelerating the integration of the banking industry, causing a large number of small and medium-sized banks to go bankrupt or be swallowed up by large banks during the financial crisis, while Mitsui and Mitsubishi When the five major banks took advantage of the opportunity, they grew rapidly, and their total capital reached 1/3 of the total capital of all banks in the country. 【9】The monopoly capitalists rely on the power of the government to form a financial oligarchy, but in the financial crisis, they "blessed in disguise" and continued to grow.This is reminiscent of the 2007 U.S. financial crisis, when the U.S. government spared no effort to rescue several "too big to fail" banks, including Goldman Sachs.It is also the government that lends taxpayers' money to big banks, and it also lets their competitors go bankrupt. It is no wonder that Buffett did not hesitate to buy Goldman Sachs' stocks during the crisis. The government is on the side of the big chaebols. Let's see who can compete with them. enemy!

With the alliance of political parties and the remote control of the cabinet council, the chaebols became more and more unscrupulous after they achieved great success in the "Taisho coup", and their attitudes towards the emperor and the military became more and more arrogant.But this time, they are facing the shrewd and scheming Emperor Hirohito! On the second day after the "Eleventh Club" meeting, after Xiyuanji Gongwang learned of the conspiracy of Emperor Hirohito's think tank through spies, he understood that after the emperor and his small circle occupied Manchuria, they did not follow his request to "stop and think about it." ", but accelerating forward.He decided to cancel plans to return to Tokyo and remained in Kyoto, suggesting to the nation that his absence from the Emperor's side was due to his disagreement with the country's new policy of expansion.

At the same time, because of his special relationship with the Sumitomo Zaibatsu, he warned Sumitomo's bankers not to get involved in the "dollar arbitrage trap", and put pressure on the emperor by discussing this matter with people around them in private. At the beginning of October 1931, Mitsui, the largest chaebol, could not bear the temptation after hearing the inside story. He speculated heavily in the foreign exchange market and bought 100 million U.S. dollars. Waiting for the dollar arbitrage to become a reality, other chaebols followed suit and bought.Now the initiative is in the hands of the emperor. If the chaebol and Saiyuanji Gongwang stand aside and do not finance the occupation of Manchuria, Hirohito will stand still and maintain the gold standard, pushing the chaebol to the brink of bankruptcy.If they get involved, they can make millions or even tens of millions of dollars in quick cash.

After Xiyuanji Gongwang heard that Mitsui and other chaebols had fallen into a trap, he realized that he was also in a dilemma like Mitsui, but he still insisted on staying in Kyoto.At the same time, he once again warned Sumitomo's management that a financial carnage was coming, and left them to decide for themselves whether it was worth profiting from it.Most executives heeded his admonitions, losing money when the yen fell two months later. In Tokyo, the emperor's inner circle was busy organizing political forces with different interests, a coalition that included military officers, politicians and directors of the Mitsui Zaibatsu.The Gerakan government cabinet on the stage was afraid that the risk would be too great, unwilling to take on this responsibility, and repeatedly asked the emperor to resign.The opposition politicians will have to bite the bullet and stand on the top, because they have assured the background "God of Wealth" Mitsui that Japan will abandon the gold standard.Mitsui has already gambled 100 million US dollars. In order to avoid long nights and dreams, they can't wait to let their politicians come to power to cash out US dollars and obtain speculative profits.

Emperor Hirohito calmly asked the current cabinet to stay in for a few more days, waiting for the resolution of the League of Nations.But the longer the Mitsui Zaibatsu waited, the more anxious they became, urging Zhengyouhui to find a way every day.The president of the Political Friends Association was forced to do nothing, and publicly promised at a voter rally in November that Japan would follow the example of Britain and leave the gold standard.As soon as the news came out, the yen immediately fell in the foreign exchange market, and the Mitsui Zaibatsu made a substantial profit on the USD/JPY book, and the pressure immediately eased.After Xiyuan Temple Gongwang heard the news, he couldn't believe his ears, and said repeatedly: "Isn't this a bank that declared bankruptcy before it opened?"

On December 10, the resolution of the League of Nations finally came down, neither condemning nor covering up Japan, but sending an investigation team to Manchuria and Japan to determine "what is right and what is wrong".Although the League of Nations is engaging in unprincipled perfunctory, Hirohito thinks it is extremely unreliable to send an investigation team. This is undoubtedly to cheer up the anti-Japanese fighters in Manchuria and delay the crisis between the League of Nations and Japan indefinitely. . Hirohito decided to start off the gold standard and "fake war" immediately.

A few days later, the Mitsui Zaibatsu's "Dollar Dream" dream came true, and the Japanese Zaibatsu and the government's Yokohama Specie Bank made a total of tens of millions of dollars in book profits.The chaebols celebrated with each other, and they made the emperor compromise again!But they forget that there is no free lunch in the world, "mantises catch cicadas, and orioles follow", these money have become handles in Hiroren's hands forever! After Hirohito accepted the resignation letter from the current cabinet, he sent someone to inform Saiyuanji Gongwang to come to Tokyo to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new government.Xiyuanji Gongwang, who was staying in Kyoto, finally came to his senses. He would have to play this game of "recommend the prime minister and find a replacement" with Hirohito often.He couldn't help asking sarcastically, "Who did the emperor's small circle choose?" When he learned that the next scapegoat was Quan Yangyi, the former president of the Political Friends Association, Xiyuan Temple couldn't help admiring Hirohito's shrewdness. Quan Yangyi was the best bait to catch Chiang Kai-shek!