"No money?" The seller's statement caused Elrond to stare in disbelief, what does it take to sell something for no money. Hastily, he asked, "Then what do you want?"
"Cigarettes, is this your first time? Nowadays Italian lira is as good as scrap paper, so I don't take lira." The Italian looked at Elrond with a serious science face.
"Why cigarettes? Can't dollars work?" Elrond was puzzled as to how it would be shopping with cigarettes.
"Dollars aren't out of the question, but cigarettes are tougher than dollars in our military. You give me dollars I'd have a hard time buying cigarettes if I wanted to." It took Elrond a moment to respond to the Italian's statement that there was such a thing as play.
"Aren't cigarettes directly dispensed? Why do we have to buy them?" As far as Elrond knew, the U.S. Army's logistical supplies were sufficient, and each soldier had a fixed quota of cigarettes every month, so according to normal circumstances there should be no shortage of cigarettes! How is it that cigarettes have now become a harder currency than US dollars in the black market?
"Yes cigarettes are rationed, but a month's quota will run out in three days on a high intensity battlefield, and if you want to smoke again you'll have to wait for the next month's quota or trade up. So, you get the picture!" The words the Italian uttered were like lifting the fog to let Elrond see a million golden lights.
Cigarettes were spread from the Indians, and Brazil happens to be the main growing area of tobacco, although the local cigarettes in Brazil have not formed a big brand, but there are a lot of small-scale cigarette factories, for example, Elrond's uncle Yang Zong's family operates a small workshop-style cigarette factory.
Originally still thinking about how to purchase goods to the United States to sell to earn money Elrond, at once discovered a new continent. Hurriedly opened his mouth again and asked, "Man, is it only you Italians who trade in cigarettes, or does everyone trade in cigarettes. Depends on the brand?"
Since Elrond didn't smoke, it really didn't occur to him before that cigarettes had become hard currency in the military. So had the cigarettes he used to be rationed in the Brazilian Expeditionary Force been directly embezzled by his officers? It felt like I had lost a hundred million dollars and my heart ached.
"Everyone trades in cigarettes, of course! Including the Krauts. As for the brand it doesn't really matter, but of course the most popular cigarettes on the market nowadays are the American good color cigarettes. It looks like you don't know the market at all! You don't have any cigarettes in your hand, do you? Then how many dollars are you willing to pay for this watch?" The Italian clearly felt that Elrond had strayed too far from the subject and wanted to bring the conversation back to the watch deal.
Seeing that this Italian did not want to continue to popularize the market information for Elrond, Elrond was not annoyed, but whispered in his ear, "Man, I am a crew member of a U.S. Navy transport ship, and I have just arrived in Italy, so I don't know much about the market, but I'll be traveling between the U.S. and Italy a lot in the future. Do you understand what I mean?"
The Italian's eyes erupted with bright golden light when he heard Elrond's words. His eyes scanned the people around him from side to side and saw that no one had noticed the two of them before lowering his voice and pointing to Elrond's armband, "Brother, this isn't a U.S. Navy symbol you're wearing."
"Hey ..... Yes I'm in the Brazilian Expeditionary Navy, but we're under the command of the US Navy's Fourth Fleet and I happen to be an officer in the Naval Logistics Department, so ..." Elrond had to divulge a bit of his identity in order to convince the Italian that he was capable of getting enough cigarettes.
The Italian's eyes began to glow green and he whispered to Elrond, "Bro, how about we talk somewhere else?"
Elrond knew all too well what the Italian was thinking, and he wasn't willing to let him think that he could have his channel all to himself; he had to put enough pressure on him to be able to get more in return.
"Man, let's get back to talking about the price of this watch! I really don't have any cigarettes on hand right now, so I wonder how many dollars you want to sell it to me." The tone of voice that was deliberately emphasized on the word now made the Italian clearly understand what Elrond was trying to convey.
"Brother, the watch is a minor issue, if you can bring in tons of cigarettes, what does it matter if this watch is given to you?" The Italian was very uptight, obviously someone in big business.
"You might as well tell us how many cigarettes this watch is worth!" Elrond, also a master of not seeing the rabbit, continued to hang on to the Italian.
"Bro, you want to know how many dollars a pack of cigarettes is worth right? There's no need to try, I want to be a long term business partner with you, and would never cheat you on such things!" The Italian directly opened up.
Elrond did not react at once, accustomed to the character of the Chinese people in the previous life, but also wanted to repeatedly test the bottom line with this Italian, I can not imagine that people simply do not go around the bend with you.
"Okay! Man, let's all be honest, I'm sure I'm going to have to confirm this again somewhere else. So can you tell me how many dollars a pack of cigarettes is worth at your place?" Since the others had already opened their windows, Elrond didn't beat around the bush anymore.
"Brother, if you have cigarettes to sell me, I'll buy them at five dollars a pack, and of course that price goes with the market, but I'm sure it's going to get more expensive. I don't believe there should be anyone in the whole of Naples who could offer a higher price than I can." The Italian's tone was sure and full of confidence.
This price indeed exceeded Elrond's expectations, we must know that this era of the dollar is not after the latter's devaluation of the abusive, the purchasing power is quite strong, now a dollar can definitely be used as a thousand yuan in the second millennium of the value of the yuan, because now a dollar is equivalent to about a gram of gold.
And if Elrond remembered correctly, the price of a pack of cigarettes in the United States is now almost twenty cents, so if the cigarettes are shipped from the United States to Europe, the price is directly twenty-five times. Elrond was afraid to calculate how much more profitable it would be if he purchased them from his own cigarette factory in Brazil and shipped them over.
"Man, your offer does appeal to me, I think I know what merchandise to carry when I come back from the States, I wonder how much you could eat." Elrond accounted for the capital he had on hand, five hundred dollars would buy twenty-five hundred packs of cigarettes, selling them to him at five dollars a pack would turn it into twelve thousand five hundred dollars, and with that money he could buy sixty-two thousand five hundred packs of cigarettes worth thirty-two thousand five hundred dollars in the United States. This business is definitely worth Elrond's life, to know that now in the United States, a car only costs about a thousand dollars, and Elrond if you run two trips down, you can not enough money to buy a car into the price of more than three hundred cars. It's logical that it shouldn't be his turn to discover such a good business!
"I don't have a lot of dollars on hand, but my uncle definitely has plenty of funds on hand, and putting together a few tens of thousands of dollars is absolutely no problem." In this day and age tens of thousands of dollars are really big bosses, so the Italian's tens of thousands of dollars definitely has the backbone to say that he has plenty of funds.
"Honestly there's a lot of profit in the middle of this, aren't there any other traders doing it?" Elrond couldn't believe that no one else had found such a great business opportunity.
"Of course someone has already started doing that, how else would that price be set! You're wondering why no one is just shipping whole ships this way, right?" The Italian asked the question in Elrond's mind with a smile on his face.
Before Elrond could answer, he answered himself, "Do you think the German submarines at sea now are vegetarians? In addition to the convoy protection of the fleet, the other civilian merchant ships to run a trip to take the risk of not having the price of the benefits, who would be willing to do it! There are escort fleet protection are transporting strategic materials, will not do business with you! In fact, this cigarette can be used as cash time, but also from the Yankee landing counterattack only began, the time is also more than four months. It also took time for the big businessmen to prepare their fleets, and as far as I know there were some businessmen who ventured out on their voyages and never came back. This has caused the price of cigarettes to be even firmer."