I Became A Black Merchant In Another World-Chapter 388: Ponzi scheme (2)

Early medieval Europe, inheriting the traditions of Rome, was surprisingly clean.

People, if not daily, still made efforts to bathe often, and public baths were built. In any case, they were quite diligent about hygiene.

But everything changed after the Black Death struck.

I don’t know exactly why the Black Death happened, but because so many people gathered in public baths, the plague spread widely, and the chances of contracting the disease increased.

The primitive people of the Middle Ages believed that being too clean made one more susceptible to illness.

Ignorant people, when faced with bad outcomes, tend to make foolish mistakes.

If I understand this, I should make use of it myself.

“Sebastian, people grow through experience, right?”

“Yes, my lord. I, too, have made countless mistakes in my life, and it is based on those experiences that I am who I am today.”

“Everyone’s the same. When you make a mistake, something bad happens, and you learn from that suffering, avoiding the actions that lead to such mistakes. If you’ve bitten into a lemon raw, you’ve experienced the sourness, and if you’ve eaten a chili raw, you know the pain of spiciness, and that’s why you avoid doing it again.”

“But my lord, you eat the chili peppers from the New World quite well, don’t you? Leo tried to imitate that, and kept coughing and drooling, and then Chloe...”

“Don’t bring up painful stories.”

My body is of Toscani Empire descent, but the content is Korean.

So sometimes, I crave kimchi and plain white rice.

Until now, I couldn’t make kimchi because there weren’t any chilies, but recently, chilies have become available. I had one of the family chefs make various kinds of kimchi, like napa cabbage kimchi.

I’ve been eating it with lettuce wraps, stuffed with chili, thinly sliced garlic, and pork belly, and sometimes I even have it with rice.

When Leo saw me do that, he tried to imitate it during a family outing and ended up chewing on raw chili...

And that’s when the incident happened.

‘These chilies haven’t been bred properly, so they’re even hotter than Cheongyang chili...’

That day, for the first time, Chloe told me it might be better to sleep separately that night.

If I ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) had encouraged him to eat it, I probably would have been told to sleep in a separate room for at least a week...?

“After that, Leo never ate raw chili again.”

“The Toscani Empire understands the usefulness of stocks, from the emperor down to the serfs. But the Kingdom of Lyon only knows that a few people benefit from stocks. What do you think would happen if we showed them the ‘spiciest’ side of stocks?”

Sebastian shook his head.

“So, we’re just going to play a little prank. My plan is this. They’re selling cochineal and tobacco over there, right?”

“Yes, they’re selling a lot of them over there.”

“The official source is from somewhere in the Maasai Confederation in Afrikia. But what if we told them that the real source wasn’t Afrikia, but an entirely new land? How would they react?”

Tobacco, cochineal, and other goods from the New World are being sold at incredibly high prices.

They pass through the Maasai Confederation (with clean sourcing) and then move through the Kingdom of Lyon before reaching the Toscani Empire.

By the time they reach Lyon, the price is inflated by 100%.

What could be bought for 2 gold coins in Florence costs double that in Lyon.

But now, imagine there’s a company that can bring it directly from the New World?

‘The entire population of the Kingdom of Lyon would go wild.’

“Usually, only novices or clumsy people get tricked like this. But when blinded by such huge profits, even the most gullible would fall for it. They’ll all invest, thinking it’s real. But the problem is... we actually need to secure the real cochineal and tobacco.”

“What’s the problem with that? We’ll just tell Ericsson to buy as much as he can. The indigenous people of the New World will go wild with nothing but iron farming tools and low-quality weapons.”

“Stone weapons, nobles only wear armor made of cloth and leather. They’re truly primitive.”

It’s almost a waste to sell firearms to these people.

The Maasai Confederation knows about firearms and can use them well, so selling them is easy, but the indigenous people of the New World can’t even handle iron.

Which means, to them, even iron-made weapons are high-tech.

So, we need to offer them cochineal and tobacco in bulk, right?

“Let’s bring it in in bulk and pretend we’re buying it. If we’re going to deceive them, we should do it right. If major shareholders in the stock start getting curious about how the company operates, we show them cochineal and tobacco and say, ‘Our company has secured trade routes with the New World.’”

“If they see it with their own eyes, they’ll have no choice but to believe it.”

“And this is the most important part.”

Actually showing them the route for securing cochineal and tobacco is just a prelude to the main event—Ponzi scheme.

Yes, it’s like those scam artists who borrow a small sum, like 50,000 or 100,000 won, pay it all back without fail, and build trust before running off with the big money.

‘Life is about the big break.’

A scam needs to come in one decisive strike.

“Initially, we’ll pay 200%, 300% returns on the invested money. Then, gradually, we’ll reduce the payout, but we still need to release more money than was invested.”

“Can’t we just deduct some of the principal and pay it as dividends?”

That’s how Ponzi’s evil demon works—paying off a bit and running off with the money.

But to pull off a big scam, you need high-risk, super-high returns.

At first, we’ll give a 200% return on the principal, and later, we’ll pay back a significant portion of the investment for a while.

If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.

This is how the moths to the flame will start putting up collateral for their estates and rushing in.

Yes, just like Baron Florin, who has the heart of a beast.

‘Of course, they lack the instincts of a beast, so they’ll all end up drowning in the river.’

But for now, they’ll be happy with their investments, so I’ll just collect the tuition.

“We need to think of it as if we’re collecting all the money in the Kingdom of Lyon. We can’t miss out on the opportunity over just 3 million gold coins.”

Sebastian wiped his sweat with his handkerchief.

“My lord, sometimes you show a daring, courageous spirit that goes beyond the bounds of ordinary men. Even someone like me can barely keep up.”

“I’m scared too. Do you know how terrifying it was when Leo ate the chili and caused a ruckus, and Chloe said she’d sleep in a separate room? When Erika and Chris sided with Chloe, I was really, really scared.”

When all three of my wives teamed up to pressure me, it was really, really, really terrifying.

Well, it wasn’t much of a pressure—just telling me to comfort Leo because he’d eaten the chili wrong, but it was still terrifying.

Sebastian sighed deeply.

“An ordinary person would find it more terrifying to recklessly invest all their assets than to argue with their wife.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“Next to someone as exceptional as you, my lord, I guess someone like me is necessary. If I weren’t here, who would teach you that this isn’t the norm?”

Erika never demands normal common sense from me.

Chris, being a merchant, accepts anything I say without question, and Chloe truly believes anything I say.

I’m not joking; if I told her that storks bring babies while they’re sleeping, I think she’d actually believe it...

Sebastian is really the only one who gives me this kind of advice.

“After paying out dividends once, twice, three times, and four times, anyone in Lyon who doesn’t invest with us will be seen as a fool.”

“If money is growing on its own, it would seem foolish not to take advantage of it.”

“When everyone believes that if they invest in my new company, they’ll become incredibly rich.”

A scam is like farming.

You have to raise your hand, put in effort, and wait for the harvest.

Until when? Until the rice turns golden.

And once it’s ripe, just grab the sickle and reap it.

The best time to pull off the stock scam is when everyone believes that investing in my company will make them incredibly wealthy.

“Once it’s ripe, we’ll just swing the sickle and take it. If we run off with the money, so be it.”

“...I almost would have been fooled myself.”

“Best compliment ever. Now, what should we call the company, let’s see...”

No matter what you do, naming is important.

A good name helps people’s lives bloom, and scams succeed.

“Alright, let’s call it Namhae Company.”

“Namhae Company?”

“It’s a company heading south from the Maasai Confederation.”

“...I’d like to send you, Sebastian, as the head, but your face would probably be known.”

Then, Sebastian immediately recommended someone for the role.

“Send Orsini. He has the capability to replace me at any time.”

“Alright, let’s do that.”