005 : Romantic Era
“Sambok! I am here.”
“Are you really back? Giving up studying abroad?”
When I really came back to Korea, he was dumbfounded. I was eating rice with kimchi, so I sat next to it and ate it.
The kimchi was so delicious that I had been in Singapore for a few days.
“Yes, because I studied to become rich! I came to the conclusion that making money myself is faster than studying.”
“Yes, life is easy.”
“If you see that I signed a contract, you won’t be able to say that.”
“What kind of contract did you have?”
Sambok ate at my confident expression.
“These contracts are worth $400,000.”
I put the bundle of contracts down on the floor.
It was really the size of a book on A4 paper.
“Four hundred thousand dollars?”
“Yes, $400,000!”
“Because it’s around 270 won per dollar… Whoa! Over 100 million!”
uh? At that time, the exchange rate was only 270 won?
I thought it would be around 500 won.
“It is trade only when it exceeds 100 million. It’s a small amount, but I think it’s a reasonable amount for the two of us to start.”
I deliberately shrugged my shoulders.
“It’s a small amount. This is money that a salary earner like me has to save without spending 250 years!”
“What is your salary? Aren’t there quite a few?”
Sambok is an employee of a fairly well-known textile company called Geumseong Textile.
“Including the allowance, it’s 32,800 won.”
“okay?”
Textile Factory Manager’s Monthly Salary Around 30,000 Won?
I thought it would be about 30 times the price, but I have to multiply it by 100!
“It’s a real tricot fabric contract. Heh heh! Over 500,000 yards in all? M… you’re crazy!”
Sambok, who was flipping through the contract, suddenly shuddered.
From the look on his face, he doesn’t look excited, but scared.
“Sambok, were you scared?”
“M-Have you ever been in the fabric business?”
“That’s what I’m going to do from now on.”
“The export volume is 500,000 yards… and even the dyeing is different?”
At my words, Sambok was dumbfounded.
“There’s nothing you can’t do.”
How much is 500,000 yards?
To convert to meters, multiply by 0.9, so 450,000 meters… roughly 450 kilometers.
… Shit, it’s a street in Busan, Seoul.
It was not easy to see.
“You madman. Tricot fabric is a complex fabric that is woven vertically. Even if one weaving machine is operated at full capacity for a month, will it pull 5,000 yards? Considering machine failure and thread changing time, 4000 yards is the limit. Produce 500,000 yards of it? Just the two of us?”
Well, even in the original history, it was said that one company received a quantity that could not be handled, but was it this large?
If the monthly production is 4,000 yards per machine, how many machines do you need to process 500,000 yards?
If you divide it into 3 deliveries, it is roughly 170,000 yards per month, so if you divide by 4000…
what? We only need to secure about 43 weaving machines. What’s difficult?
If you have enough equipment, you can cover it enough.
“Let’s not think too hard. If you recruit about 50 weaving machines, you can weave them after three to four months of hard work. There must be 50 Karl Mayer equipment in Korea.”
“What is the name of the 50 units of equipment… Oh, yes… Let’s say there is equipment. Then, what yarn are you going to use?”
“Look at the sample. Numbers 24 and 87.”
I held out a sample book.
“… crazy, it’s a nylon and cotton blend… have you spun?”
“Mixed? Is it a mix of nylon and cotton? Somehow, it was soft for a synthetic fiber.”
Sambok, who was touching the sample, glared at me as if he were going to eat me.
“How many more pieces of equipment do you think you would need if it was mixed? ok? What kind of guts did you have to accept this!”
If it is mixed, it seems that the equipment utilization rate is lowered.
“Haha, you can do it. We are young.”
I was scared by the look in his eyes, but I felt good.
To say that this guy comes out so violently means that he intends to work with me.
In the meantime, he worked at a textile company, so he was more expert than me in terms of textiles.
“Are you going to do something like this and go over the rice?”
“What if the guy gets scared before he even starts working? Don’t worry, this will be a huge hit. You just have to do what I tell you to do.”
It was also a huge success in history.
Considering that Chairman Woo accomplished this level of work when he was just a freshman in society, he must have been no ordinary person.
I am also not an ordinary person, so of course I have to succeed.
“Try it. Let’s see how well you do it.”
“First of all, as soon as you go to work tomorrow, write a resignation letter to the company, and prepare an office here by subtracting the rent for your own room.”
“Yes, resignation is every salaried worker’s dream. It’s okay to use the office as a room for one’s own living. What next?”
“Set up a company called unemployment, and borrow some money from the bank with this contract as collateral. Could you borrow at least 50 million won?”
“… Yes, it’s that easy. Is not it?”
“It’s not easy, so I’m asking you. Who am I to trust?”
Sambok seemed to slightly calm down his anger in my eyes. First of all, it must be the mindset to help work.
I could understand a little how Chairman Woo and Vice Chairman Lee Sam-bok stayed together until the end.
“Yeah… I’ll have to try. Then what are you going to do?”
“What are you doing? We need to find a factory to produce them.”
All you have to do is find a partner to entrust the work to.
“Kh, a guy who hasn’t been paid a few times for studying is looking for a factory?”
“Did you ever imagine that a guy who hadn’t been paid a few times would win such a large contract?”
“…..”
Sambok became dumb after eating honey.
Of course there is nothing to say
“I can. So you can too. Register as a corporation, and borrow money.”
“Then will you make me the manager?”
“I’m the boss, you’re the manager.”
“great. Woo boss. I will crawl as you ask, so please help me succeed.”
“You are already out. Inbok is born, and from now on, rebok will explode.”
When I spoke so confidently, the guy seemed to have calmed down a bit and smiled with his gums exposed.
I rummaged through the cupboard and brought the leftover soju.
“If you start a business, you should toast. Isn’t it?”
“For the Great Unemployment!”
“for!”
Sambok and I celebrated the founding with half a bottle of soju and a side dish of kimchi.
Our romantic era has begun.
***
“go for it!”
“go for it!”
As the two of us left our rooms, we clenched our fists at each other.
The guy will be going in and out of banks, public offices, and registry offices for days.
‘Should I go to Seongsu-dong?’
Seongsu-dong in the 21st century is a place where handmade shoes are made, but now it is 1965.
Seongsu-dong is the only place near Seoul that can be called an industrial complex.
It is a place where more than a thousand factories are concentrated, and they can be said to be the No. 1 privately funded industrial complex historically.
I wondered if it would be possible to look around the factories equipped with Karl Mayer looms, calculate the amount of each production, and distribute the quantity.
I took a bus and headed to Seongsu-dong.
Was it called Ttukseom Industrial Complex in this era?
When I got off the bus, a scene reminiscent of the streets of Jeonpo-dong, Busan, unfolded before me.
Chimneys pouring out black smoke from early in the morning, people carrying loads of stuff on carts, people already lighting up welding sparks, a woman who stacks up a lot of rice soup on a tin tray and delivers it as if such bustle were a daily occurrence. There were people in one space who filled their breakfast with kkakdugi (radish kimchi).
If I had a smartphone, I would have liked to take a picture, but it wasn’t the time.
I diligently snooped here and there, hoping for signboards such as xx fiber and xx weaving to appear.
「Sooil Chemical Fiber」
How much did you get lost? When I went deep into the alley, I saw a sign for a factory that weaves fabric.
The word chemical fiber is short for chemical fiber, so it was like a factory I was looking for.
But what?
It was packed with people, but it was a completely different situation from the lively morning routine.
“Don’t come in! Get out!”
“Are you guys not getting out of the way? This plant is already ruined. Everything here belongs to the bank! know?”
“I don’t know! If you put your fingertips on anything here, you will die and I will die!”
At the factory entrance, three or four young men were chained tightly to themselves and wielding clubs.
In front of him, others were confronting each other, holding out foreclosure tickets and official documents.
Even at first glance, they looked like bank employees and auctioneers in charge of collections.
The police were also by their side, but they only frowned at the embarrassing situation.
It was a scene I had seen countless times on the streets of ironworks as a child.
The bankrupt factory was put up for auction.
Employees were driven to the streets with no way to receive their overdue salaries.
’60’s answer. I don’t know why adults called this period the Romantic Age.’
At that time, the interest on bank loans was over 25%, and the interest on debentures was over 40%.
It was the economic situation at this time that if the factory president messed with the fund management, he would go straight into the abyss.
This is probably the reason why the factory owners fell into all sorts of crap, such as fraud, smuggling, intentional bankruptcy, and gambling.
It was a time when I heard that if you have money, you have to be bribed or illegal to be qualified as president.
“Don’t get hurt and get out of the way! Will the boss who went bankrupt and ran away because of this come back? Shouldn’t there be an auction to pay the overdue salary?”
“Don’t bullshit. Where is the one or two who got hurt like that? If the auction is successful, the bank guys will take it all and throw us only 10,000 or 20,000 won! Bring your paycheck! It’s been over three months! Bring our money! Not bank money!”
The young men resisted by wielding iron pipes.
The factory doors were locked and chained to the body, so the bank tellers and auctioneers couldn’t do anything about it.
After several days of confrontation, the faces of the young men were as good as skulls.
If left as it is, it seemed that he would die of malnutrition before receiving his overdue wages.
“This is the final warning! Put down the pipe and get out of the way!”
“Give me my money! I mean, give them money and arrest them or not.”
“Everyone, let’s eat and fight.”
I raised my hand and intervened.
“… What are you!”
“Get out of here, you don’t care!”
When I intervened, everyone turned on their twin wicks at me.
“Aunty, according to the number of people here!”
“Yes, sir.”
Regardless of the bloody atmosphere around me, I ordered soup from a delivery woman passing by.
The lady was also very resolute, so she didn’t care about the occasional atmosphere.
He made his way through the alley as if he was a master master of Murim, and in an instant piled up a bowl of rice soup and brought it back.
“What are you doing! No soup!”
“Ah, yes. Yes.”
Rather, he squealed and screamed for help in unloading the tray of rice soup he had brought.
The bank employee was also scared and grabbed the tin tray together.
“What are the bachelors doing? Aren’t you going to eat breakfast?”
“No, no. Eat… eat!”
“Can you give me radish radish?”
“A lot… a lot.”
The way to sell soup is to be quick-witted.
Ajumma did what I wanted with a hook because I was the one who would pay for the rice soup.
In a clumsy atmosphere, people received a bowl of soup one at a time, and the fuss naturally subsided.
“How much is it, ma’am?”
“It costs 100 won per bowl. All of them are 800 won.”
“thank you for your effort. You don’t have to give me change.”
“Ayu, the young boss is so big. want to be big Keep the dishes in one place.”
The blunt lady, who had been blunt so far, said a few words of thanks to me, then disappeared in a flash.
“I hear a lot. It’s like saying let’s eat everything and live, but a fight is a fight and you have to eat first.”
“Go… Thank you.”
Perhaps they were hungry, the young men at the factory began to eat the hot soup with their noses.
The chains tied to his body looked pitiful.
“Boss. I give it to you, so I eat it, but it’s not a problem for a passing nobleman.”
“No, that could be a problem.”
“What is it?”
The bank clerk made a fuss, but I continued talking without taking my eyes off the young men.
“I am an exporter. I went to Southeast Asia for chemical fiber fabric, but I didn’t know that the factory here would go bankrupt. This is a weaving factory with Karl Mayer equipment, right?”
“Yes. yes! you’re right. All 10 units are Karlmeyer facilities.”
Oh, there are 10 of them?
This factory had 20% of the equipment I wanted. It was a rather large factory than it seemed.
What appeals to you?
