1953 Bare-handed Tycoon - Chapter 372



Only Noblemtl

372 – Large safe

In mid-May, a large safe was delivered to the front of Cheongsan headquarters.

It was too heavy to be moved up the stairs, so the plan was to tie the safe to a rope, pull it down from the roof, and then move it through the window of the secretary’s office on the fourth floor.

Seo-kwang and Han-su stepped in to control the safety of pedestrians passing by while the safe was being pulled from the rooftop.

“This side is dangerous, so please pass through on the road. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Since there weren’t many cars on the road at the time, pedestrians were happy to turn onto the road and pass by.

Some stopped in India to watch the large safe being built.

After the safe was safely placed through the fourth floor window, Seo-gwang and Han-su removed the no-trespassing panel that had been blocking the sidewalk.

“What would make the CEO keep the money in the safe…?”

Seo Kwang asked Han Soo. Han Soo shrugged and said.

“Yes. You liked to deposit your money in the bank, but I don’t understand why you would put it in a safe deposit box that doesn’t even earn interest. The safe deposit box alone must be quite expensive.”

“That’s right. Could it be that the CEO is doing this to raise slush funds? Without telling his wife.”

When Seo-gwang joked, Han-su became serious.

“Does that make sense? You always sound like you’re my brother.”

“What? Do I look like someone who would secretly save up slush funds without telling my wife? Do you think I’m some kind of public servant?”

“Then, are you the president’s wife?”

“No, I was joking. Hansoo, can’t you even take a joke?”

“I was joking too. You’re the one who can’t take jokes.”

“Ha… Look at this guy. He got married and had kids, and now he’s trying to be my equal. Is this what it means to be an adult?”

“Even though I’m young, I think I’ve always been more mature than my brother.”

“what?”

Seo-gwang and Han-su went up to the fourth floor while bickering.

Ma-Ryang and Dae-Ik, who were on the fourth floor, pulled the rope connected to the safe on the fourth floor, brought the safe inside, and then placed the safe on a mat spread on the floor.

After carefully moving the heavy safe into place so as not to damage the floor, the two wiped away the sweat that was dripping down their bodies.

As I worked hard in the warm weather, sweat poured down like rain.

“Thank you for your hard work. Have some cold water.”

Hyun-kyung brought a glass of water and handed it to Dae-ik and Ma-ryang.

“I’d like a drink too, Hyun-kyung.”

Seo-kwang, who had already come up to the 4th floor, smiled brightly at Hyeon-gyeong and spoke.

When Hyun-kyung handed Seo-kwang a glass of water, he handed it to Han-su.

“Let’s start with the mature younger brother.”

Hansoo gave the glass of water to Seogwang, who was still drunk.

“Even cold water has its own order, so you should drink it first, hyung.”

“Really? Am I right? Haha.”

Seo-gwang drank the water with satisfaction.

The managers sighed and asked Daeik.

“Why did the representative bring in the safe?”

“He told me to secure three months’ worth of operating funds in cash.”

“Three months?”

Seo-kwang was startled.

“Yes, he gave the same instructions to his affiliates. He also told them to pay all funds due to their business partners within this month.”

The managers’ curiosity grew at Daeik’s words.

“There must be a reason why the CEO does that, but why on earth is he doing that?”

Seo-kwang said, scratching his head.

But since the keynote speaker was at the Hankook Ilbo, I couldn’t ask him directly, so my curiosity only grew.

* * *

Recently, Kijo has been working a lot at the Hankook Ilbo in the mornings.

That day too, Kijo was encouraging economic reporters and sharing opinions about the economy.

After meeting Kim Jae-chun and returning, Kijo became actively involved in economic articles.

It was to prevent the revolutionary government from carrying out a currency reform.

The first thing he did was to report the rumors going around Myeongdong in a gossip article called .

The article said, “With the stock market crashing and securities firms on the verge of bankruptcy, there are rumors going around that the government will implement currency reform to stop the payment of settlement funds to banks and securities firms in order to buy time.”

The source of that rumor was none other than Kijo himself.

The tone was focused on blocking the currency reform that was just a few weeks away.

The currency reform promoted by the revolutionary government would ruin the South Korean economy.

There was no problem with simply printing new currency and exchanging 10 hwan for 1 won.

Because it involved taking shocking actions that should never be done with it.

The shocking measure was a deposit blockade.

The idea was to force the money that citizens had deposited in banks into long-term savings and use that money as funds for economic development.

Specifically, deposits of less than 10 million yuan were blocked by 65%, and deposits of more than 10 million yuan were blocked by the entire amount.

The blocked deposits will be replaced with shares of the Industrial Development Corporation and a 15% dividend will be paid annually.

A 15% dividend may seem high by modern standards, but it wasn’t back then.

It was at the level of interest rates for ordinary bank deposits and savings.

They also came up with a plan to help citizens who were robbed of their money by the government and needed emergency funds.

The policy was to lend out half of the blocked deposits as loans.

But this was also an unrealistic response.

I don’t know whose idea it was, but it seemed to have started with the naive idea of ​​scraping together the people’s money and using it for industrial development.

And it was a strangely communist yet capitalist method.

Confiscation of all national deposits was communist, but forcing all citizens to become shareholders of South Korean industry was capitalist.

The revolutionary government, as a revolutionary government, tried to revive the economy in a truly ‘revolutionary way.’

That was also why Kijo brought a large safe into the Cheongsan headquarters.

And to avoid difficulties for business partners, they even brought forward the payment to the following month.

In the original history, the revolutionary government lifted the deposit blockade after only one month, but this time, they prepared three months’ worth, not knowing what would happen.

The keynote speech was already underway for the second phase of the project to block the currency reform through the Hankook Ilbo.

The second task was to publish articles by scholars who were negative about currency reform.

The article was published in the Hankook Ilbo by a famous economics professor who argued that currency reform has never been truly successful.

The article included examples of countries around the world that attempted currency reforms to curb inflation, only to fail miserably.

Still, there was no response from the Blue House.

Even though the Hankook Ilbo has been talking about the currency reform, which is being promoted in secret to the extent that even the government can only count on one hand the number of people who know about it, Chairman Park or the Central Intelligence Agency have not responded.

The keynote speech moved on to the third task.

I decided to go see Lee Byung-chul.

Kijo met Lee Byung-chul at his home in Jangchung-dong and asked him to write a column.

Before the JoongAng Ilbo was founded, Lee Byung-chul often contributed economic columns to the Hankook Ilbo.

Lee Byung-chul, whom he met in the study, asked Kijo.

“What do you want me to say?”

“There’s been talk of currency reform these days. What do you think, boss?”

“Currency reform?”

Lee Byung-chul looked surprised and made an unexpected expression.

Samsung was in financial difficulty due to having to recover a huge amount of money in the name of fines during the April 19 Revolution and May 16 Revolution.

Although they received some tax breaks for building factories and paying stocks in advance, they had no room to spare as they had to pay their taxes properly.

In that situation, currency reform would have been like asking Samsung to swallow poison.

“What kind of nonsense is that… Did that come out of a government official’s mouth?”

When Kijo said that such a rumor was spreading in Myeongdong, Lee Byung-chul suddenly seemed to realize something and said.

“Ah… Now I understand what the head of the Song Yo-chan cabinet meant.”

“What did Song Suban say?”

“When I asked the government for help with funding for the construction of the factory, they said that ‘something good’ would happen soon. Now that I think about it, maybe they were talking about currency reform… … .”

The keynote speaker was glad that Lee Byung-chul had signaled this early.

In the history of the Yuan Dynasty, there was no sign of currency reform, and immediately after the announcement, he criticized Chairman Park, saying, “I think there will be many people who will suffer and few who will benefit.”

When Chairman Park, embarrassed by this, asks what should be done, they say it would be best to lift the ban immediately, but Chairman Park thinks it is too late and says that political trust must be maintained, so he pushes ahead as planned.

The keynote speech was that he, as the head of the Korean economy, would express his opposition to the currency reform to the government.

Lee Byung-chul readily accepted Gijo’s request for a column, saying:

“I have to say something to those who think such nonsense.”

Two days later, President Lee Byung-chul’s column was delivered to the Hankook Ilbo.

President Lee Byung-chul’s argument was very strong. He argued that if a currency reform were to be carried out at this point, the Korean economy would suffer a fatal blow and collapse.

If a currency reform is carried out, it will take a long time to change the old currency into a new currency, and in the meantime, the lifeblood of the economy, the money supply, will be blocked.

It was a warning that in these times of economic recession, if the flow of money is blocked, even large corporations will have a hard time, and small and medium-sized businesses will suffer fatal damage.

The keynote speech was impressed by Lee Byung-chul’s insight that accurately foresaw the future.

In fact, the revolutionary government limited the exchange of old notes for new notes to 5,000 hwan per person per day.

Because of this, hundreds of thousands of people stand in long lines in front of banks across the country every morning.

The prediction that small and medium-sized businesses would be hit the hardest was also accurate.

After the currency reform, the operating rate of small and medium-sized enterprises fell to 42.5%, and the smaller the enterprise, the greater the damage.

This was because the government tied up the money that companies had to spend on production activities, making it impossible for them to purchase raw materials to make products.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, which had less credit than large corporations, were struggling with payment demands and were unable to purchase raw materials or parts on credit, so they collapsed.

The keynote was that, as expected, Lee Byung-chul is Lee Byung-chul.

When the column of President Lee Byung-chul, a great figure in the Korean economy, was serialized in the newspaper, I received a call from the Blue House that very day.

After making the call, Lee Rak said to Kijo.

-The chairman will see you for a moment.

The keynote speaker immediately headed to the Blue House, thinking that Chairman Park had finally responded.

As we entered the office, the room was filled with the smoke from Chairman Park’s cigarette, as was his custom.

“Sit in front.”

Chairman Park looked as uncomfortable as when Jang Gi-yeong exposed Kim Jong-pil’s plan to found a new party.

He asked, smoking a cigarette in silence in front of the keynote.

“Why are you like that these days?”

I asked Chairman Park’s question as if I didn’t know anything.

“What are you talking about?”

“That word, currency reform. Why is it in the newspaper so often?”

“Is that what you mean? I just received the article because I was curious about what the currency reform was and what effects it would have if it were implemented, as there were strange rumors going around in Myeongdong, which has been a bit tense these days.”

“hmm…….”

Chairman Park let out a sigh.

It seemed that he was very upset that a top secret project known only to a few people within the government was being rumored and covered in the Hankook Ilbo, and that even Lee Byung-chul was opposing it.

“Why did President Lee Byung-chul send an article to your newspaper? Did you ask him to do so?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Because when it comes to the real economy, there is no one as knowledgeable as President Lee Byung-chul. I wanted to end the debate on currency reform with his opinion.”

When Kijo answered using Lee Byung-chul’s authority, Chairman Park’s eyes wavered.

The keynote speech was that Chairman Park also hesitated a lot on a human level before the currency reform.

Chairman Park differentiated himself from the previous government by focusing most of his efforts on economic reconstruction, and the ambitious measure he put forward to secure funds for economic reconstruction was currency reform.

But it was natural to be anxious when there was talk that it could ruin the national economy.

With the general election just a few months away, if we ruin the economy, the election results will obviously be bad.

Chairman Park, who had been smoking a cigarette and looking thoughtful, opened his mouth.

“Are you also negative about currency reform?”

“Yes, I object.”

“why?”

Chairman Park took a sharp look at the keynote.

The keynote speech had become accustomed to Chairman Park’s sharp gaze.

Chairman Park’s eyes became sharp not only when he was upset, but also when he was anxious.

Kijo maintained his composure, not minding Chairman Park’s gaze.

I felt like this was my only chance to persuade Chairman Park.