So There Were Freebies Too?

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Inside the hospital room.

Only after hearing Xu Yun's explanation did a glimmer of understanding appear on Old Guo's face.

So that was it.

No wonder Xu Yun, Qian Bingqiong, and the others wanted to accept the Japanese proposal.

It was true that, under the agreement, the yen they received from the Japanese could only be used to trade for goods within Japan.

In other words, within the scope of the deal itself, the Rabbits would have to stomach a fivefold markup: something worth 100 yen at its original price would cost them 500.

But—

Once Japan's economy collapsed years later, the yen would depreciate sharply.

If they settled the bill in yen after it had fallen, the Rabbits' costs for purchasing equipment might not even reach 50% of the original price.

So even setting aside the collapse of Japan's economy and considering only the gains and losses of the deal, the Rabbits stood to make a fortune.

Of course.

At this point, some readers might have a question:

Wait, isn't that wrong?

In actual history, Japan's bubble burst and its economy went down the drain, but the yen didn't depreciate by much afterward, did it?

That's an excellent question. Ten points!

That did indeed happen in actual history, but there was another factor behind it.

Namely, the sixth global financial crisis in human history.

In the traditional sense,

because Japan had maintained a zero-interest-rate policy for many years, the yen had long served as a low-interest currency and a tool for carry trades.

During periods of economic growth,

with stock markets rising, investors would borrow low-interest currencies like the yen, exchange them for the US dollar, Australian dollar, or New Zealand dollar and other commodity currencies, then invest in the stock market. They could earn both returns from