The Joseon Prince Went To America And Didn’t Return – 26



< A sprout blooming on the ashes >

It’s been four days since the great earthquake struck San Francisco.

“As Your Majesty instructed I have compiled information on the real estate owned by Your Majesty.”

With the embers almost out I quickly began assessing the damage to my property.

“A significant number of buildings in the city were completely burned down.”

The term “a significant number” here means more than 90%.

Every building in San Francisco has burned down in a fire so how could my building be safe?

“By the way the warehouses near the docks seem to be in better condition than I thought.”

A little disappointing.

If you ride all of these you will receive even more insurance money.

But I tried my best to keep a straight face and not show it.

Because everyone was suffering from the fires that occurred after the great earthquake.

In this situation if you say that it’s a shame that one of your buildings didn’t burn down you may end up in unexpected trouble later.

As I was thinking about that Choi Hyun-woo opened his mouth.

“Isn’t it because of the sea breeze?”

“Sea breeze?”

“Yes. Because when humidity is high fires are less likely to start.”

but.

I guess so.

“Furthermore it is said that the building owners rushed to the dock and protected their warehouses putting out the fire with seawater.”

Those who had fire insurance would have slept without worry.

But the majority who didn’t must have been anxious and desperate as they tried to put out the fire.

If a spark were to fly into my building all my life’s work could turn to ashes.

“So these three places are fine. Oh then… let me check the items stored in the warehouse.”

It would be profitable if it burned brightly but I wasn’t heartbroken.

This is because the insurance money already received is considerable and the items stored in it can also be utilized effectively.

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“Did you say that cotton and wood were stored inside?”

“Yes that’s right.”

“Donate these to the city. Call the press and announce this.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes. Tell them that you’re going to use it to set up temporary shelters for those who’ve lost their homes. And notify the city as well.”

If you sell it for an excessively high price all the effort you’ve put in could go down the drain.

One of my goals this time is to improve the image of Koreans and myself.

I had to be careful.

‘I’ve earned enough money.’

Even if it’s not this time.

I was thinking of donating all the items I had in storage to rebuild the city as the Great Depression that would follow next year could have another knock-on effect.

“boss.”

“Yes. What news do you bring?”

Aaron came to me.

He was holding a letter in his hand.

“President Giannini asked the boss for one thing.”

“What?”

“I would like to rent one of the warehouses located on the dock.”

“The warehouse?”

I tilted my head and read the letter Aaron handed me.

“You’re going to run a bank there temporarily? Huh….”

I frowned and asked Aaron.

“What happened to the old BOI (Bank of Italy) building? Why are you asking for a warehouse? Wasn’t it fine until the second day after the earthquake?”

“That is… On the third day looters stormed the Bank of Italy building. Then flames rose up…”

but.

It may be small but it’s a bank.

How could it be okay?

I nodded and called Choi Hyun-woo again.

“Choose a good warehouse and empty it. Then rent that building to Giannini. Ah! Aaron you give Giannini a message.”

“Yes I will do so.”

The two men tried to leave the office as soon as they were instructed.

I quickly grabbed Aaron.

“Ah… Tell Giannini that I’ll stop by the day after tomorrow. I’m thinking of meeting him.”

BOI grew rapidly after the earthquake.

I wanted to know how Giannini implemented lending to the common people.

‘I’m not going to run a bank but…’

I’m curious.

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His unconventional secret to growth.

‘Of course you can’t follow along but sometimes you can gain insight just by observing.’

I have to go further.

Because now I’m just a former lobbyist who only knows future information.

Giannini was one of the most revered Wall Street figures in history.

That’s why I wanted to grow myself through him.

* * *

“Oh my… This is hell on earth.”

San Francisco burned for three days after the earthquake.

Perhaps because of that everywhere I went there were many burnt-out mansions and warehouses.

‘It’s strange that only that building didn’t burn down.’

Among the black piles of ash there stood a relatively intact warehouse.

It was one of the buildings I had just purchased.

‘It’s not like there are no traces of fire at all.’

Although it does look slightly sooty perhaps due to the fire that broke out in the building next door.

Since there were very few usable buildings left I lent this one to Giannini.

‘Here it is.’

『Bank of Italy. Temporarily operating on the docks. Open 7 days a week』

There was a very large banner hanging outside the warehouse.

If you didn’t see even this who would think this was a bank?

“Okay… Get in line. If you cut in line I will refuse your loan without exception so don’t do anything stupid and just wait. Oh right there. I’ll be handing out numbers soon. Hey! Shit. I said no fighting!”

Inside the warehouse Giannini was setting up a makeshift table and conducting loan consultations with his employees.

I stood at a distance and watched how they processed the loan.

“Mr. Franco. How have you been?”

“Oh! Pablo. It was you.”

“It’s been a while. You finally paid off your loan early this year and it’s nice to see you again like this.”

“Yeah. I didn’t know you’d come here again.”

“The reason you came here is because of the fruit shop you were running?”

“Then the whole Holladang burned down in this fire.”

“Do you plan to open for business again?”

“I’ve been selling fruit my whole life. How could I do anything else besides that?”

“I’ll lend you three hundred dollars for now.”

“Hey don’t do that. Just lend me five hundred dollars. Who would put three hundred in someone’s nose?”

“We’d like to do that too… but as you know there are a lot of people trying to borrow money so we can’t. Three hundred dollars. Same interest rate as last time. What do you think?”

“Ugh… I see.”

“You can’t afford to miss this interest. Oh and please say hello to Anna.”

It was really simple.

After signing the papers the Bank of Italy tellers handed the old man three hundred dollars.

‘What the fuck is this?’

I don’t have a mouth like Giannini.

But I feel like cursing.

As I watched this I felt a bit dizzy.

‘I understand why people call Giannini a fool.’

At first glance it seemed like they were lending money without any thought.

There isn’t a credit scoring system like there is today.

Because we don’t execute loans by using visible assets as collateral.

Since it was really a credit loan secured only by future business income it felt like an extremely reckless thing to an outsider watching.

But it didn’t take long for that thought to disappear.

“Why can’t I? Are you discriminating against people?”

However Giannini and his men had their own principles in executing the loan.

“Didn’t you gamble with the money you borrowed last time? And now you want to borrow this much money again?”

“Ah… I told you I washed my hands.”

“There are some things a man can’t stop once he starts. Gambling alcohol and women are the most common. You do all three of them.”

The man whose loan was rejected jumped up and glared at the banker.

“Tch! You dirty Italians. Lick that Pope’s asshole with your tongue.”

Wow… I see you swearing.

At this all the Bank of Italy bankers jumped to their feet.

“What? Have you seen this fatherless bastard? Do you want to die?”

A brawl was about to break out.

Oh really.

This looks like a mafia den.

“Security bring the author out.”

Luckily Giannini was able to drag the commotion away with a loud bang.

After that they started making loans to customers again.

‘Wow this… is creepy.’

Bank of Italy employees had relatively detailed information about the residents of San Francisco.

When will Jane’s third daughter get married?

How has Alfonso recovered from his last injury?

When will the child who will be called Adam be born?

I was privy to their private lives.

‘Their secret to success is to be completely integrated into the local community.’

In another sense it’s really cringe-worthy.

It seemed that lending in this manner could only be done by someone other than a Bank of Italy employee.

‘Who would follow this?’

Despite the bank’s growth over the past year neighboring banks have been reluctant to extend unsecured credit loans to ordinary citizens.

For existing banks that have been lending money by using the assets or collateral of the wealthy Giannini’s business methods must seem like a complete turn-off.

“Huh! This prince.”

At that moment Giannini noticed me jumped up and came towards me.

“Are you here?”

“Thank you again Prince.”

When the boss moves the subordinates under him also act in the same way.

When everyone stood up and welcomed me I felt like a mafia boss.

“Okay… Everyone get to work. You’re going to be very busy.”

I left the warehouse building with Giannini and offered him some words of comfort.

“I heard your story. That’s too bad.”

Giannini cursed the looters with a grin.

“Aren’t they complete bastards? Burning down a perfectly good bank building because the vault was empty… They’re the kind of people who deserve to be splashed in shit. I’ll just….”

Thanks to you Giannini is indebted to me again.

It’s actually better for me.

The more he relies on me the stronger our relationship will become.

“But thanks to you Prince I can sleep soundly like this.”

Giannini thanked me again and began to praise me.

“If I had ignored the prince’s advice back then….”

Ah! That’s right.

I also recommended Giannini to take out fire insurance.

Before the earthquake I was promoting fire insurance to the point that insurance companies mistook me for an insurance ambassador.

This is because I have a lot of insurance.

I prepared an alibi in advance so that no one would suspect me after the earthquake.

I shrugged my shoulders and showed my humility.

“What are you talking about? In the end you were the one who took out the insurance. There were many who ignored my advice.”

I gave an example after I raised one finger.

“Even Jack the so-called Gold King is like that. Didn’t he suffer extreme damage from this earthquake?”

Gold King Jack Milo is the one who introduced me to Giannini.

Naturally Giannini also knew Jack well.

“I advised Jack to get insurance several times. But in the end he just wouldn’t listen to me.”

“I heard Jack has been borrowing money from people around him lately… That must be why.”

Most of Jack Milo’s gold mines were in California.

Although it wasn’t close to San Francisco it was still a major earthquake.

This means that all of California was shaken greatly.

Mines are inherently at risk of collapse.

There are open-pit mines but they basically drill hundreds of meters underground to find gold veins.

It’s dangerous even in modern times so what about now?

As if that weren’t enough a major earthquake struck.

There was no way it would be okay.

‘Fortunately or unfortunately not many people died when I woke up at dawn…’

It is inevitable that the business will collapse.

It’s going to cost a lot of money to repair it and since you don’t have insurance you’re going to lose your life savings.

‘You’ll come find me soon.’

Why?

Because we jointly established a trust company to purchase 10% of the shares of Unsan Gold Mine.

It’s not much compared to Gold King’s previous fortune but he must have run out of cash to restore the mines he currently owns.

He would definitely come to me since the only asset among his other assets that could be easily converted into cash was the trust fund.

I made a meaningful expression.

Looking at me like that Giannini carefully asked me one thing.

“Did you know it would turn out like this?”

It is suspicious.

Because I have a ton of insurance contracts.

I asked with a shrug.

“Do I look like a shaman to you?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then why do you ask if you know?”

“I just hoped. There might be something else in the East that I don’t know about.”

That damn Orientalism.

When we think of the East we often think of something mysterious but in fact both the East and the West are worlds inhabited by people.

What else is there? Tsk tsk.

“Anyway it’s a shame.”

“What else?”

“At that time the preferred stock contract was like that. The insurance was like that too… If I had just listened to the prince I would have had another bottle of alcohol even while sleeping…”

Giannini licked his tongue and made a regretful expression.

I can see that you completely trust me.

“By the way your complexion doesn’t look too good.”

Giannini asked me with a smile on his face.

I answered it.

“It can’t be good.”

After saying that he looked around with a rather serious expression.

“San Francisco is now my second home. Wasn’t this city burned down? How many people died how many were left on the streets?”

Giannini who was also from San Francisco looked as if he understood what I meant a hundred times over.

That was when.

“older brother.”

Pablo who could be called the number two man in the Giannini gang approached them.

“What’s going on?”

“Something big has happened.”

“Why? Weren’t you fine just a moment ago?”

“That’s… If we continue like this I think we’ll run out of available assets.”

I was listening from the side and nodded quietly.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Of the many banks currently open this is the only one.

Everyone was locked out of business and forced to close.

If you try to force it open the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the safe could cause serious damage to the contents so you should leave it alone for at least three months.

So where do cash-strapped San Franciscans turn?

Where is it? It’s right here.

“Okay. Pay attention.”

Giannini quickly returned to work.

He climbed up to the table put his hands together and brought them to his mouth.

He acted so that his words could be heard from further afield.

“I’m sorry but I think this is where we’ll have to end our loan for today.”

When they informed the customers that all the prepared cash had been depleted the whole town started to murmur.

“No I didn’t even get any advice.”

“I waited for three whole hours!”

“Everyone calm down. We will raise funds again tomorrow and open a temporary store here.”

Giannini tried to calm the angry customers but it didn’t seem to have much effect.

That was when.

Strangely my body started moving.

I opened my mouth standing tall next to Giannini.

“I am Prince Lee Kang from the Korean Empire. I currently reside here in San Francisco and am living a second life. I have something to tell you.”

The public paid attention to my words and pointed fingers at me.

“Lee Kang?”

“The hero of Sausalito?”

“Why him?”

“Didn’t you know? That prince from the East is one of the shareholders here.”

“Oh really?”

Giannini looks at me with wide eyes.

Then he quickly turned his gaze back to the customers and shouted loudly.

“Everyone be quiet!”

The crowd became quiet at Giannini’s shout.

At this I began to open my mouth again.

< Sprout blooming on ashes > End