The Rise Of A Billionaire 1943-Chapter 149 - 161: Liberators and Predators

European Reconstruction!

Could it be that the so-called miracle of European reconstruction in another world was about to unfold? Pierre’s brows furrowed as he fell into deep thought.

Until now, his postwar plans had focused on Borneo, not on a broader stage.

His vision was far too narrow, completely overlooking the rest of the world.

Borneo was, after all, just a tiny, insignificant part of the world.

By comparison, Europe was the one region that should never be overlooked in the first few decades after the war.

What would postwar Europe look like?

All countries would have suffered widespread destruction, shortages of materials, lack of funds, slow economic recovery, and people on the brink of starvation.

It was precisely under such circumstances that the United States launched the "Marshall Plan," providing aid for Europe’s postwar reconstruction. The U.S. used European reconstruction to ease its own postwar economic crisis.

From 1948 to 1952, Europe experienced its fastest period of economic growth in history. Industrial production grew by 35%, and agricultural output actually surpassed prewar levels. The poverty and hunger of the immediate postwar years vanished, and Western Europe entered an unprecedented twenty-year boom.

It was during this period that the lights, once extinguished, shone once again across Europe.

Yet, none of this was known to people of this era. Thinking of this, Pierre looked at Alberto and asked,

"Alberto, when we were in Italy last year, why did no one buy those ships?"

"Because there were too many ships,"

Alberto answered without hesitation:

"In American shipyards, several Liberty ships are launched every day—thousands can be built in a single year..."

Those are Liberty ships of ten thousand tons each. Their rate of construction not only outpaced the rate at which German submarines could sink them, but also far exceeded the total tonnage before the war. By the time the war ended, the United States alone possessed tens of millions of tons of merchant ships. Inevitably, the government would sell off these vessels at extremely low prices. For at least a decade or more, the seas would be flooded with cheap Liberty ships. Yet, even at rock-bottom prices, there might not be many buyers. After all, Europe..."

Pointing out the window at New York, Alberto shrugged and said,

"America got rich during the war, while Europe was drained of its wealth. They simply don’t have the funds, as they did before the war, to purchase all kinds of goods from around the world. Many believe it will take Europe at least twenty years for its economy to recover to prewar levels. Those twenty years will surely be a dark age for the shipping industry. By then, whether it’s Liberty ships or Italian merchant vessels, they’ll have long since become nothing but scrap metal."

Looking at the bustling New York outside the window, and thinking of the poverty and hunger rampant in Italy, Alberto continued,

"Eight years ago, the Greek shipping magnate Onassis bought six cargo ships from Canada for $120,000. When they were built, they were worth $2 million. During the Great Depression, each was worth only $20,000. Just four years later, he lived to see the war. But who knows when the next war will break out?"

Taking a sip of coffee, Alberto said,

"In the next ten or twenty years, merchant ships will be nothing but scrap iron. After all, there are simply too many merchant ships in the world. So, no one will buy that pile of scrap!"

Ah, such are the limitations of the times!

Now, faced with the devastation Europe suffered in the war, almost everyone believes Europe is doomed to fall into a hopeless situation. But reality often defies people’s expectations.

No one now could have foreseen that—Western Europe, destroyed by war, would recover so quickly. Who could have imagined that, in just a few years, Western European countries—including Germany, which was utterly devastated—would rise from the rubble, and their demand for goods would far exceed prewar levels as living standards improved?

This absolutely defied common sense, but it truly happened. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

And who benefited from all this?

America, certainly. But besides America, who else profited?

Among them were Greek shipowners, represented by Onassis!

While Onassis and the Greek shipping magnates were transporting goods to Europe after the war, they discovered that shipyards in Germany, France, Italy, and other Western European countries had all suffered varying degrees of destruction in WWII. Rebuilding shipyards required massive investments. Their merchant fleets had also suffered heavy losses. So, Greek shipowners lobbied their government to use American loans to buy Liberty ships, while simultaneously investing in Western European shipyards.

In just a few years, the Greek merchant fleet became the largest in the world. Countless goods—including agricultural and forestry products, oil, iron and other ores, coal, chemicals, fertilizers, and more—were shipped worldwide by Greek vessels.

The golden age of shipping was thus seized by the Greeks! Of course, they only managed to ride the wave of the shipping industry’s revival.

Thanks to the imaginative Mrs. Kennedy marrying the Greek shipping magnate Pierre learned about Onassis’s story and realized just how prosperous the postwar shipping industry had been.

The opportunity hidden within this was not merely the boom in shipping, but a chance for the entire Western world to rise again. If one could seize this opportunity, the profits would be unimaginable.

The Greek shipping magnates only gained rich rewards from shipping. They did not fully leverage their advantages, content merely to act as transporters.

For Pierre, who came from the 21st century, there were plenty of successful cases to draw from in that era. To reap substantial profits, the most important thing was diversification and making full use of one’s advantages.

He could fully leverage his shipping edge and the information advantages of a multinational company to coordinate logistics and directly participate in market sales. In this way, he could naturally earn even greater profits.

By making some early arrangements in Europe, he could ride the wave of Europe’s revival and obtain huge returns.

The profits gained in Europe would provide the capital needed for Borneo’s rise, possibly even forming a kind of cycle—the more developed Western Europe became, the greater the profits, and the more prosperous Borneo would be.

Just like... just like America! The Marshall Plan was, in fact, a sugar-coated bullet that America handed to Europe.

"So that’s how it is..."

Suddenly, it was as if everything became clear to Pierre. By this time, night had already fallen, and Alberto had long since left the office.

"My God, those guys on Wall Street really are something else!"

He stood up from the big desk, walked across the room to the window, and gazed down at Manhattan’s business district. Though he couldn’t see the people and vehicles moving on the streets from so high up, the rivers of lights flowing along the roads attested to the city’s prosperity.

Over there was Wall Street—the heart of this financial empire. No matter what its detractors say, Wall Street is destined to dominate global finance for decades, even centuries to come.

And when did all this begin?

Not tomorrow, nor yesterday, but right now!

Those impeccably dressed speculators were waving their dollars, buying up all sorts of cheap assets in Europe. Their aim was not just to make money, but to achieve another goal—to turn Europe into America’s own field of leeks.

"The Marshall Pla—"

Cheating is probably just another part of their game too!"

Pierre mused to himself, drawing analogies.

"Europe accelerated its economic recovery through the ’Marshall Plan’. As the European countries revived, their previously undervalued assets regained their worth. On the surface, Europe seemed to have recovered, but in reality, it had long become America’s field of leeks. The more developed Europe became, the more it benefited the United States, because at its core, the economies of European countries had already fallen under the control of American financial capital!"

Whoa!

Taking a deep breath, Pierre seemed to understand why, in that other world, even when European countries were dissatisfied with the United States, their objections never went beyond words. Was it out of gratitude for America’s liberation during WWII? Or for the postwar aid?

Nonsense!

Between nations, there is no such thing as gratitude. Gratitude is always just lip service; interests are what truly matter.

The reason why European countries dare not turn against the U.S. is... they simply don’t have the capital to do so! Their capital only wears the shell of Britain, France, Germany, and so on. Strip away that shell, and what do you see?

American financial capital!

"Well, well, turns out Mickey and the gang are the real liberators of Europe..."

Muttering to himself, Pierre began to calculate in his mind. He had never been an idealist; as a realist, he understood what kind of place this world was: it was a pure jungle. In this jungle, there were only two kinds of animals—lions and tigers, or sheep and rabbits.

The former are predators, the latter prey. No one wants to be prey, but if you’re not strong enough, that’s all you can be—caught by the predators.

But what about those outside the categories of predator and prey?

The corners of Pierre’s mouth lifted slightly. Standing atop the Empire State Building, he gazed at New York in the twilight. At this moment, he was like an eagle soaring above the jungle... An eagle is also a predator, but it hunts from the skies above.