"Good story."
Kazuma was exceptionally gifted.
As he listened to Uchiha Makoto's little story with rapt attention, a whole heap of strange and bizarre knowledge seemed to appear out of nowhere in his mind.
A brand-new door had opened before him.
Kazuma had no doubt about the power of Uchiha Makoto's move. The Daimyo had initially spent a fortune seeking out tulips, only acquiring those precious blooms after many twists and turns. Once such a story spread through the Land of Fire, it would almost immediately ignite the domestic tulip market.
"What do you mean, priced by the plant?"
"If the nobles in the neighboring Land of Wind found out, they'd think I, a Noble of the Land of Fire, had fallen on hard times. Another roomful!"
"I want to fill every room in my house!"
These were the delightful things even the Daimyo yearned for. Those old-money types who prided themselves on being at the forefront of the cultural wave would never miss out.
The old-money nobles of the Land of Fire would probably line up to spend fortunes on tulips.
Couldn't buy them?
Then they could only pay more!
Tulips on the market were still cheap. If he stockpiled a batch now, then waited for their price to rise, he would absolutely make a profit.
Making four or five times his money—or even more than ten times—wouldn't be a problem!
"I understand, Lord Makoto. I'll immediately go stockpile a large batch of tulips!"
Kazuma spoke with a flushed face, feeling as if a wonderful future was waiting for him.
"Too small. Your vision is too small."
"Kazuma, your idea is... Forget it. Let me enlighten you once more!"
Uchiha Makoto shook his head.
Kazuma's vision was still far too narrow. This leader needed to enlighten him again!
Buying low and selling high was far too simple. As long as one grasped the market's information gap, there was no difficulty at all. Anyone could do it. Even tying a dog to the job would work.
Of course, that wasn't important.
What mattered most was that the profits wouldn't satisfy Uchiha Makoto.
Tulips sold because they were beautiful and rare. Their growing period was long, and their cultivation conditions were difficult, so there weren't many tulips on the market. Even if Uchiha Makoto went to great lengths to inflate their price severalfold, or even more than tenfold, the total number of rare tulips was right there. That was an unavoidable obstacle.
To fleece people and make money, they could only keep hyping up tulip prices.
But if tulips became too expensive, the nobles of the Land of Fire weren't idiots. They wouldn't be crazy enough to spend their food money on a pile of flowers. Besides, those sanctimonious vermin might see the profit in tulips and try to get involved themselves... That would further reduce his profit margin.
Therefore.
Simply buying low and selling high on tulips was absolutely not enough!
"Then what does Lord Makoto mean?"
"At this stage, we should indeed stockpile a batch of tulips and sell them off once tulip prices skyrocket. But tulips are scarce, so even if we hype them up, the money we can make will be very limited."
"So what we truly need to target is the primary market—the tulip growers!"
"That is the main objective of this operation, and the secret to making big money."
"But... Lord Makoto, tulips take too long to grow, and the cultivation conditions are difficult. Large-scale planting would probably require massive resources. That won't be easy to accomplish."
Uchiha Makoto smiled. He had never intended to make money by growing tulips.
That method was far too slow, and the cycle was too long. It would take years at the very least. By the time a new batch of tulips had grown, the fashionable trends among the Land of Fire's nobles would probably have changed several times over. By then, it would be far too late—even an idiot would have missed the chance.
Of course, he wouldn't use such a stupid method.
"We don't need to grow tulips. We only need to sign contracts with those flower farmers who grow them, agreeing in advance on the price of the next batch. No matter how high tulip prices are on the market at that time, we will purchase them at the contracted price. We can even pay them a deposit in advance as a guarantee."
"That way, we'll hold a large number of tulip orders in our hands. And what we will sell is future tulips!"
As Uchiha Makoto said this, Kazuma instantly understood what he meant. He jumped to his feet in delight and shouted:
"Oh, I get it, I get it!"
"Lord Makoto, you mean that once the tulip market heats up, many people in the Land of Fire will rush into it. But tulips are scarce. At that point, we can bring out the contracts we signed with the flower farmers, and someone will definitely be willing to pay extra for them. Then we can turn the tulip market into a market for trading tulip contracts. We won't need to grow any tulips at all—we can just sell the contracts!"
"Hahaha!"
Kazuma danced about excitedly, wearing an utterly unhinged grin.
"That's right, that's right. That's exactly what I mean."
"Hahaha! When the time comes, we can even work with the Daimyo to forge fake contracts. Those people who have been blinded by profit won't care about that anyway!"
Kazuma had even learned to draw inferences, thinking up something like forging contracts.
Although it was illegal.
But making money wasn't shameful.
Yes, exactly!
Once any commodity transaction detached from reality and became virtual, it would turn incomparably frenzied. It was clearly just a piece of paper, yet passing it from hand to hand could earn one, two, three, or even several times the profit. Anyone would lose themselves in such rapid trading.
Those blinded by profit had already lost the ability to think rationally. They wouldn't conduct on-site inspections or verify the authenticity of contracts with flower farmers. They would only buy, buy, buy, then sell, sell, sell, always believing someone else would take over—until the bubble burst and they became the last ones holding the bag.
So if the Daimyo contributed to the scheme, it would not be impossible to mix forged contracts in with genuine ones for sale. Once the carnival ended and the bubble burst, those contracts would be no different from blank paper anyway.
And if anyone truly brought a contract to his ninja village, then he would have no choice but to silence them.
"Hahaha, Kazuma, as expected of you. You can even think of such an evil method!"
Uchiha Makoto looked at the unhinged Kazuma, an extremely satisfied expression on his face. Kazuma seemed to be a good comrade, capable of shouldering great responsibility!
He could already imagine the future of his ninja village. It would be overflowing with talent!
Everywhere would be full of vibrant vitality, with all things flourishing.
Tenten had been working every day during summer vacation and had all sorts of other things to do, so she only had time at night.
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