In a Sichuan restaurant in Chinatown, Elrond and Wan Chongxin were both feasting on the three dishes and one soup on the table, after completing this transaction, Elrond said that he would treat Wan Chongxin to a good meal, for such a good thing, of course Wan Chongxin would not refuse.
"Mr. Elrond, about you said there is another big business to take care of me, I wonder if you can tell me what big business it is now!" For this transaction directly let Wan Chongxin in Elrond here got a fourteen dollars of intermediary fee, plus Mr. Valentine bounty of fifty dollars, a total of sixty-four dollars, which is equivalent to the average worker in the United States now two months of wage income. Wan Chongxin is already very satisfied, if it can be another business that would be even better.
"Mr. Wan, I wonder how much income you have each month now?" Originally Elrond was also considering whether to directly find a tobacco distributor to directly purchase a batch of cigarettes and forget about it. Or to make this business a long term business, if it was a long term business, Elrond had to make sure that there were people in charge of it in both the US and Italy to make it work, and it would be best if it could be corporatized and operated.
Originally, the biggest problem was that Elrond didn't have the manpower to take care of the business on both sides, but this time, Wan Chongxin's performance was still very satisfactory to Elrond, so he wanted to give him a chance.
"Uh! This well! To be honest Mr. Elrond, I'm not hiding anything from you, this deal that I helped you to conclude this time is my first bucket of gold, originally I was doing some odd jobs, no formal job, so it's even more no fixed income." This question made Wan Chongxin have some embarrassment, but he didn't do anything to hide it, he still told the truth.
"So how about if I set up an import/export trading company in the U.S. and you come work for me?"
"Aren't you a soldier? Is there still time for business?"
"I'm not in the U.S. military, so what does it matter?"
"What would I be responsible for if I worked for you? How much is the salary!" Wan Chongxin came to work as an intermediary as a forced choice, and he certainly wouldn't mind if he could have a stable income.
"All you need to do is help me, procure the goods I need as I require, transport them to the warehouse for storage and management, and then hand them over to the receiver I've arranged. Eight dollars a week, and you'll get a bonus if you do a good job."
Wan Chongxin considered bowing his head for a moment before nodding in agreement, "No problem! I am very happy to work for you."
Hearing Wan Chongxin's agreement, Elrond was also very happy, this means that in the future, there will be a person in charge of purchasing in the United States, even if he doesn't come over to the United States next time, he can still let Wan Chongxin notify himself after he has purchased the goods. He would then arrange for Captain Cross to help bring the goods to Italy, and set up a branch in Italy to collect the goods and sell them to the Gambino family, so there would be a complete trade route.
"Good, then you first familiarize yourself with the tobacco market on the American side with me today, and tomorrow when I go to set up an import and export trading company, I will sign a formal employment contract with you."
In this way Elrond accompanied by Wan Chongxin, spent an afternoon, will be the United States of America's tobacco dealers ran all over, learned that now the main market sales are mainly British American Tobacco Company's good color brand cigarettes, and Reynolds Tobacco Company's Camel brand cigarettes, so that Elrond accidentally Marlboro cigarettes don't know what the reason is actually stopped supplying the market.
After agreeing to meet at Chongxin Wan's house the next day, Elrond returned to the Charles Joss at dark, by which time everyone on the ship had arrived and was loading and unloading cargo while discussing animatedly how much money you had raised and how much I had borrowed.
Everyone greeted Elrond very warmly when they saw him return, and Elrond responded warmly to each of them, telling them that he would be collecting their investments in the morning, so that they could take turns going to him at breakfast tomorrow.
Everyone also stopped surrounding Elrond after getting a clear answer, and Elrond approached Captain Cross to try to talk to him about whether or not he could be introduced to some of the other captains.
"Mr. Captain, what I mean is that if my business can be successful this time, then every time you travel to and from the Atlantic Ocean in the future, you can organize your own crews to pool their money or individuals to individually go to the place I give you to pick up the goods, and then I will arrange for someone at the port in Italy to directly receive the goods that you have shipped over at three times the price, and turn this business into a long term business, do you What do you think?"
"Elrond, of course there's no problem, you're creating income for all of us, how could we possibly refuse?" Captain Cross laughed as he stroked his beard with a smile on his face.
"When the time comes, if you have captains of other ships you are familiar with, you can get them involved as well, the greater the amount of cargo I need, the better."
"Oh! Is it really possible? We'd better be able to keep a low profile for this kind of thing though, if we go too far we might attract the attention of the gendarmes and it'll be a pain in the ass." Captain Cross, though amused, cautioned Elrond in a wary whisper.
Elrond also took Captain Cross's admonition to heart, and couldn't help but think that it looked like he'd have to pull in a little bit with Commodore Niall Jackson to make it work, or else he'd be very passive when it came time to get checked.
The night was silent, and the next day the crew dragged Elrond out of the warmth of his blanket before dawn, and one by one Elrond could only pick up his book and keep a detailed record of how much each man had invested.
When the final investment of all the people concentrated to Elrond backpack, also made Elrond surprised, plus their own funds, as far as to raise 55,000 U.S. dollars, this amount greatly exceeded Elrond's expectations, he thought that a 30,000 U.S. dollars is already an astronomical figure, I can not imagine that these U.S. soldiers as far as possible to raise such a large amount of money.
After getting the investment, Elrond took his weapons, carefully put on his backpack, found Chongxin Wan, and together they went to the U.S. Registrar of Companies and registered a company called Global Trade Import and Export Co.
Arranged for Wan Chongxin to rent a warehouse near the pier as an office and stock location. And non-stop began to purchase cigarettes, because the first purchase, Elrond must be their own horse, understand the market price, to avoid later by the purchasing staff to enrich themselves.
So busy finally in the morning of the next day all the goods to the warehouse, looking at a warehouse full of cigarettes, let Elrond began to make a mistake, the size of the cigarettes is not big, but take up space ah! It would be embarrassing if they couldn't be transported.
Elrond, who had no choice, eventually brought Captain Cross over with him to confirm the amount of cargo, and Captain Cross was dumbfounded at how many cigarettes there were. There simply wasn't room on the ship for so many! Where was this entrapment!
In the end, there was really no way but to transport all the goods to the ship first before saying anything, after all, this is the business that the whole ship's crew invested in together.
That's how the Charles Joss was stuffed with cigarettes in basically every nook and cranny by the time she finally set sail, and even the crew's lounge was stuffed with cargo.
It's a good thing it was common property for the entire crew, or it might have been thrown into the sea by everyone halfway across the ocean. Especially when crossing the Atlantic and the convoy was attacked by a German naval submarine. But overall it was a safe crossing of the Atlantic back to Italy.
On the way back, the U.S. lost more than a dozen victory ships, but fortunately the Charles Joss made it back to Naples harbor without incident.