The Kingdom (2)
John Brown surprisingly accepted his defeat with grace.
There was something about that which reminded me of his son, and it brought a faint smile to my face.
For the record, Owen had broken down before he even reached a hundred, so John Brown, who had endured to the very end, had more than lived up to his reputation.
“You say you want to talk? Didn’t you say three days ago that you had no interest in asking me anything?”
“I had judged that the ideology of a slaveholder was not worth knowing. But I have decided to humbly admit that such a judgment may have been my own arrogance.”
“I see. Then what are you curious about? Surely you aren’t suggesting we compete in another category?”
I’m no Zhuge Liang, and the Seven Captures and Seven Releases isn’t really my style, so I had no particular desire for a rematch.
However, John Brown calmly shook his head and asked.
“Do you consider Black people to be human?”
“Then what else would they be if not human?”
“You… no, then why do you treat humans as slaves?”
“Because if I don’t do that right now, I will die.”
“Right now? A weak statement, indeed.”
I chuckled and nodded.
The purpose of this contest was, after all, to ensure that the radical wouldn’t target me ever again.
In business, even if there are some uncomfortable moments during the process, it’s always best to keep the conclusion clean and dry.
John Brown was a dangerous man, but that also meant he was a man with a reputation dangerous enough to be worth something.
Even if we couldn’t share the same ideological boat, a strategic alliance might just be possible.
“Mr. Brown, not everyone in this world can live like you, nor should they. Refusing to acknowledge the inherent weakness of humanity can also be a form of hypocrisy in its own right.”
“…True. That may be so. Then do you intend to cower here with your slaves, as weak as you are now, until slavery is eventually abolished?”
His tone was sharp, but I felt the hostility in John Brown’s eyes had weakened significantly compared to before.
“That would be a far too passive strategy. I am acting on the firm conviction that slavery is destined to be abolished.”
“Everyone says that, but…”
“A war will break out within five years at the latest.”
For the first time, John Brown stared at me with wide, round eyes.
“…A war? Isn’t that something that is already happening?”
“I mean a massive civil war where the North and South are completely torn apart.”
“And the South will lose, leading to the abolition of slavery? That is hardly the kind of talk one expects from a Southern slaveholder. Ah, is that why you treat your slaves so well while spreading the infamy of being a vicious slaveholder to the outside world?”
“……”
My silence served as the answer to that question.
“Hmph… now I think I finally see the man named James Seth for who he truly is.”
John Brown muttered, looking at me with a complex expression.
“Normally, I would have scolded and denounced such weakness, but having seen with my own eyes how it has become the hope for so many people, what can I say? Besides, I lost the contest, so as the loser, I should shut my mouth and take my leave.”
“Will you continue to operate in the same way when you go back up North? I’m telling you, even if you don’t go around spilling blood and violence like you do now, even greater violence and blood will cover this land.”
“If what you say is true, then so be it. But I cannot act based solely on such predictions when there is no physical evidence. After all, you say a war will happen, yet you aren’t doing anything concrete other than building a hospital.”
“That’s because I’m in the middle of preparing for it.”
“…Preparing? You mean to say there was something else you were doing besides the hospital?”
In an instant, as if I had received a revelation, the field where I could best utilize this man came to mind.
“Then I shall tell you. However, since you lost the contest, if you confirm that I am seriously preparing for the coming war, just lend me your name. How about it?”
“I will listen for now. Do not forget that my backing down is only because I lost the contest, not because I have accepted you.”
“In fact, I am already preparing to launch agricultural and military industrial businesses in the North under the name of my employee in anticipation of the future.”
“Food and weapons? You were truly preparing for war?”
“Didn’t I tell you I was? But I’m a bit worried because the person who will be my proxy is still young. How about you just put your name down as an executive of the company, Mr. Brown? It would likely be a great help in establishing the initial business.”
I thought the agricultural side would be fine since Rockefeller had experience, but what I was worried about was the military supply side.
I hadn’t found a proper method and it was weighing heavily on my mind, but if John Brown added his strength, it would become much easier.
Of course, I didn’t really want his help; what I wanted was not his practical influence, but the reputation of John Brown as a radical abolitionist.
Most of those supplies would be sold to the North, but a certain amount was also scheduled to enter the South, where a food shortage was expected.
Naturally, once the war began, the North would blockade the Southern borders, and any company that seemed to be sending food or weapons to the South would inevitably be under surveillance.
But could there truly be anyone in the United States who would suspect that the food and weapons of a company John Brown himself was involved in were flowing into the South?
They wouldn’t even be able to harbor a suspicion.
Naturally, I had no intention of letting him handle the actual company operations, nor should I.
I was perfectly satisfied just by putting him in a director’s seat and having him hand out business cards here and there.
“Then, while we’re at it, let me introduce you to the employee who will grow that business. He is a very clever young man named Rockefeller. For your reference, this young man also vehemently opposes slavery.”
“A young man who vehemently opposes slavery is working under a slaveholder? This is truly maddening. Fine, I will listen to the story for now. Only the story, mind you.”
“Of course. I would never force you.”
In any case, John Brown was a man who could only ‘understand’ my position, not ‘accept’ it.
Because even after slavery is abolished, he is the type of person who would not find it strange to criticize my method of enslaving the mind rather than the body.
Of course, just reaching the realm of understanding was already a huge achievement, so I didn’t get greedy and just asked him to let me use his name.
And all evening long.
I returned to being an employee of a large corporation from my past life, excitedly ranting about how Buchanan would drive North-South relations to catastrophe and why war was inevitable.
I emphasized that this business could be a fatal blow to the Dixies he loathed, and John Brown gave his de facto permission, saying he would remove his name from the executive list the moment I did anything foolish.
As I’ve been feeling lately, it’s a fact that middle-aged men are strangely weak to me.
* * *
As I have emphasized before, the South cannot achieve food self-sufficiency.
This is because it was a hopeless land that was only obsessed with cultivating cash crops and poured all its administrative capabilities into cotton or tobacco businesses.
Compared to the North, even their railroads were pathetic, and the reason was simple.
Because ships were far more efficient than railroads for transporting cotton.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason, and the difference in industrial structure was also significant, but in the end, isn’t the South’s industrial structure all-in on cash crops?
If you trace the root cause, the conclusion that it is because of the South’s money-making structure remains unchanged.
Anyway, due to these fatal factors, the South’s infrastructure was low-quality and hopeless.
This was something I couldn’t fix, and I didn’t even have the heart to touch it.
“In the end, after reviewing it from various angles, the conclusion was reached that farming for food in the South is practically an act of a fool.”
Rockefeller seemed to be of the same mind as me, as he placed a notebook filled with dense writing on the desk and asserted it clearly.
However, John Brown, who had been listening quietly from the side, blinked as if he needed an explanation.
“Why? There is land to spare here, so why can’t everyone just grow some food together? Logically speaking, most food production happens in the North, so aren’t Southerners anxious?”
A truly piercing question.
Most of the United States’ food is grown in the North.
And the South is not on very good terms with the North, and talk of splitting up if things continue like this is coming up quite often.
Yet, what kind of guts do these Southerners have to ignore this risk that even John Brown can see through at a glance?
“Mr. Brown, let’s assume you are a planter. If I told you that the Northerners might threaten us with food in the future, so from now on, use part of your farm to harvest food instead of cotton, would you do it?”
“Ah… it’s such a shallow reason that it’s easy to understand. You don’t want to lose money, is that it?”
“Exactly. If I say, ‘Please lose some money for us,’ who would happily follow? The only answer that comes back is ‘You do it.’”
I do it, and some planters also plant food to use on their farms, but that is only for my own use, not to help others.
“For that reason, as Rockefeller said, large-scale food farming in the South is impossible. Then, Rockefeller, what is your thought?”
“If we can’t grow it in the South, there is only one answer. Build a large agricultural company in the North and smuggle the North’s food in.”
If they can’t make it here, take what those who were already making it have.
A very certain and standard method.
“But shouldn’t you also consider the case where the North prohibits food exports to the South?”
“That is why we must create at least three smuggling routes starting now. A route through Nassau in the Bahamas, a route using Kentucky, which is still close to a gray zone, and the route we will use as our main focus, the Matamoros port through the Rio Grande in Mexico.”
Kentucky, Bahamas, Mexico.
Once the smuggling route in the triangle surrounding the South is completed, bringing the North’s food into the South will certainly not be a big problem.
The South will be thirsty for food, so even if I sell it for several times the price I brought it in for, it will sell like hotcakes.
If they are short on money, I can ask for land as collateral, and I can effectively increase the size of my farm by several times at a price close to a super-special.
“But Seth, if you sell the North’s food to the South, isn’t that helping the Southerners who support slavery?”
“No. Do you think the South will beat the North just by getting some food? In the first place, this is not intended to be sold mainly to the Southern army. We are going to sell it to the planters who will be anxious because of the food shortage.”
“You intend to extort money from the planters…”
When the Civil War breaks out, the price of food in the South will skyrocket as time goes on, and the larger the planter with many slaves, the more desperate they will become for food.
Even if they plant food on their farms late, farming is not something where the items can be changed overnight.
“Those without money will have no choice but to provide their land as collateral, right? If I legally suck up all the money and land in the South and monopolize it this way, what will happen to the other planters?”
“You… truly have not even a fingernail’s worth of affection for this South.”
Just as he said.
When this war ends, those who owe me debt will all go bankrupt, and the land they own will all become the property of my kingdom.
It means it will become a true quasi-state that can embrace all the freed slaves who come looking for it.
John Brown commented that it was a plan he didn’t like, but he agreed to let me do as I pleased, saying that the Dixies, who were 1,000 times more loathsome, deserved to be dealt with miserably.
After all the preparations were finished, Rockefeller established two new businesses in the North.
Commonly known as SS.
A comprehensive supply company that handles not only food but all necessary supplies such as medical soap and candles.
Commonly known as SM.
It is a company that will first handle farm tools and hardware, then scout technicians from various gun companies, and slowly change its business type to a weapons supplier.
SS and SM, which will be the two main pillars of my business in the North until the oil business explodes in the future… no, now that I’ve shortened it, the company names are a bit awkward.
I hinted that we should change the names, but Rockefeller insisted that the name Standard must be included, so it was finally confirmed as it is.
“Then let’s all have a toast! Long live SS!”
“Until the day SM spreads across the United States!”
“…To, our success!”
There were various happenings and twists and turns, but in the end, the magnificently named SS and SM began their operations in earnest.
Leo, Ben, Henry.
Even my sister Kate and my brother-in-law.
Those who heard the names of the companies praised them as names that stuck in the ears and believed in their success without doubt.
Yeah… whatever it is, as long as it makes money, that’s all that matters.