Before leaving London, I chartered a 1,200-ton steamer.
In addition to 700 Rubber Tree Saplings, I loaded it with European building materials, luxury furniture, various industrial machinery needed for Sidimi, and a variety of Western goods for smuggling into Joseon.
Yuli Briner asked me, “Why are you bringing so many building materials?”
“I need to rebuild my house, and we need to properly build houses for Skipper and Mikhail as well. Of course, we should build a house for Yul, too.”
Yuli Briner beamed with a wide smile at the mention of building a house for him.
“I’d love it if you built me a house. But even considering that, isn’t the ship a bit large?”
“We need this much space because we’re going to stop in India to pick up some Saltpeter.”
Before our departure, we sent a telegram to arrange for 400 tons of Indian Saltpeter.
After stopping in Bombay to load it, we arrived in Singapore.
I had already purchased 60,000 acres of land in Singapore, but I only had 700 Rubber Tree Saplings.
If I planted 100 trees per acre, 10 acres would be enough for those 700 saplings.
However, even if the area needed for planting the Rubber Trees was small, preparatory work like clearing the land and preparing to plant new saplings was necessary.
Of course, before that, I needed a manager to oversee the Rubber Plantation.
While I was worrying about finding a suitable person, Bittu Singh and Chitt Singh solved my problem.
They recommended a man among the Sikhs living in Singapore, saying he was quite capable.
Since Singapore had been a British colony for a long time, many Indians lived there, including Sikhs.
Sikhs, along with Parsis and Jains, were known among Indians for being diligent and reliable, so I thought it was a good idea and met the person they recommended.
Since Bittu and Chitt were giants nearly two meters tall, I expected the person they recommended to be similar.
To my surprise, he was a lean, middle-aged man of average build.
Bittu Singh spoke. “Mr. Hira Singh is fluent in English and is highly respected among the Indians. He will not disappoint the Boss.”
I liked that Hira Singh wore a suit instead of traditional Indian clothing, though he did wear a turban as a Sikh, and I hired him.
While entrusting him with the management of the Singapore plantation, I gave him some points to note.
“The most important thing is to grow the Rubber Tree Saplings until we can harvest the next batch of seeds, and then continue growing them until we can produce rubber.”
Hira Singh understood my words and asked, “How much spacing should I leave between the Rubber Trees?”
“There is no established knowledge on that. So, I think it would be best to try planting them at intervals of 3, 4, and 5 meters. Once we plant them like this, we’ll know how to do it next time.”
“Who do you intend to hire for labor?”
“We shouldn’t ignore labor costs, and since this area is Malay land, try to hire Malays first. If that doesn’t work, we can hire Indians or Chinese. I will give you the authority over that, Mr. Hira Singh, so please handle it as you see fit.”
I hired Hira Singh with an annual salary of 200 pounds, which was a very high wage in this region.
I intended to leave the management of this plantation entirely to him, so I thought it was best to provide such a salary.
The Singapore Rubber Plantation would be my foundation for the future.
To trust someone with such an important position, I had to give a high salary, yet I decided on this amount because I felt I couldn’t pay him more than Bittu and Chitt, who protected me by my side all day long.
Then, I discussed additional ways to bring rubber seeds from Brazil with Hira Singh.
“Is there any way to get more Rubber Tree seeds from Brazil?”
“Are you asking about stealing seeds from the Rubber Plantations in Brazil?”
“First of all, there are no plantations in Brazil dedicated solely to planting Rubber Trees. They tried to create a Rubber Tree plantation once, but they all died from disease. So, the general opinion in South America is that a plantation with Brazilian Rubber Trees is impossible. That means we have to harvest seeds from wild Rubber Trees. We need to find someone to go deep into the Amazon to collect Rubber Tree seeds first.”
Hira Singh nodded and asked, “How strict is the security in Brazil?”
“Henry Wickham, who stole the seeds last time, talks about it like some adventure story, but we should probably assume there’s a bit of the typical explorer’s bravado mixed in. We can probably just hide them under coffee or other goods coming out of Brazil.”
“In that case, I will find a suitable person and have them procure the seeds. If they are collecting seeds from that vast Amazon jungle, they should be able to easily evade the Brazilian guards.”
After the discussion ended, I entrusted him with a 2,000-pound deposit certificate from Baring Bank and told him to withdraw and use as much as necessary for the plantation’s management.
“Use this money for the expenses of operating the plantation and for the cost of bringing seeds from Brazil. As long as you keep clear records, you may handle everything as you wish. If you need more funds, send me a telegram.”
In this era, 2,000 pounds was an amount equivalent to about 2 billion won in the 21st century, and in this time of low consumption levels, it was an even larger sum.
No matter how new the trees were, planting and managing 700 trees wouldn’t require more than five workers, so this was an overflowing, massive sum.
Not only Hira Singh, but even Bittu Singh and Chitt Singh widened their eyes at seeing me entrust such a large sum to Hira Singh, whom I had just met.
“Because I am still young, I need people I can trust and rely on. I hope to work with you for a long time, Mr. Hira Singh.”
“I will work with the utmost sincerity so that the Boss’s trust is not in vain.”
***
After Singapore, we stopped in Shanghai to purchase tea from Archie at Jardine Matheson, then returned to Sidimi via Vladivostok.
Stopping in Vladivostok was specifically to unload the tea purchased in Shanghai.
While we were away, Fridolf Gek had built facilities for a shipyard and a pier where a 1,200-ton ship could dock, allowing us to bring the ship right in.
In the past, we would have had to unload all the cargo in Vladivostok and then charter a small boat to bring it to Sidimi, but now that inconvenience was gone.
The waters off Sidimi were deeper than expected, so while building a full-scale port might be difficult, it wasn’t hard to anchor a ship if a pier was built.
We had earned quite a bit of money last year and this year, so there were plenty of funds to build the pier.
I said to Fridolf Gek, who came out to the pier to welcome us, “Thanks to Skipper building this pier, we can now dock comfortably. At this rate, we could even use this place as a base for overseas trade.”
“I built it because I needed a place to anchor ships to build the shipyard, but it should be able to handle ships up to about 2,000 tons.”
“If it’s the small fishing boats Skipper will make, we could dock many more, right?”
“Of course. We could anchor over a hundred of those ships.”
“Did the Vladivostok city government say anything?”
“It’s about developing the region, so what would they say? If things go well, I might even receive a medal.”
“Ah, come to think of it, someone like Skipper certainly deserves a medal.”
The pier was even equipped with a crane capable of lifting about 5 tons for unloading, and thanks to this crane, our unloading work was carried out quite easily.
Even so, it was clear it would take several days to unload all the cargo we brought, so I went first to the place where we had planted the rice.
Even though it was a trip to London, England, the time spent in England was short, and I was lucky enough to catch a fast British government vessel midway, allowing me to return before the harvest.
In the 100 Dessiatine of land where we had planted the rice, the ripened stalks were bowing their heads.
I said to Uncle Taeseok, “Wow, at this rate, we can start the harvest within a few days.”
“That’s why we decided to start the harvest in a week.”
“I was worried the rice wouldn’t ripen before the cold weather came, but I’m glad it ripened like this.”
“It wouldn’t have worked if it was rice brought from Joseon. It was possible because it was the rice you bought from Japan. Even those who have farmed rice before said it’s their first time seeing rice ripen this early.”
“In exchange, the yield will be a bit lower.”
“I thought so too, and the people who’ve farmed rice said the same, but surprisingly, it looks like the yield will be even higher.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I don’t know if it’s because the air circulates better thanks to planting the rice in rows like you said, or if it’s because we used a lot of the Saltpeter fertilizer you bought from India, but the yield seems like it will be higher than in Joseon. Just look at the rice now. There are over 150 grains on a single stalk.”
Having seen things in the late 20th and 21st centuries, I had seen many stalks with over 1,000 grains, but to the people of this era, 150 seemed like an enormous amount.
“Since we haven’t farmed rice ourselves, how are we supposed to know how much that is?”
“According to those who have farmed rice, they say it’s a bumper crop if 100 grains grow on a stalk. They said it’s their first time seeing 150 grains.”
It seemed the Saltpeter fertilizer had a great effect; I should try increasing the amount of fertilizer next time.
While we prepared for the harvest, we unloaded the cargo and put it into the warehouse.
The harvest began as soon as the unloading was finished.
Furthermore, this year, we weren’t just harvesting rice; we also had to harvest Oats.
The rice was for us to eat, and the Oats would all be used for animal feed.
Until last year, everything except the portion to be used for seeds was harvested for hay before the ears formed, but starting this year, since enough Timothy and alfalfa hay had been produced, we grew all the Oats properly and harvested them for grain feed.
If you ask whether the Oat straw left after harvesting the Oats can be used as hay, the answer is yes.
While it lacks nutrition so you shouldn’t feed only this, if mixed with other hay, rice straw or Oat straw is quite useful as fodder.
When the harvest was over, we were quite surprised.
From the 100 Dessiatine of land where rice was planted, 220 tons of rice were harvested, and about 600 tons of Oats were harvested from the 500 Dessiatine of land.
And when including all the various types of hay, we were at a level where we could handle the entire supply of Oats and hay for the Russian Army’s cavalry horses.
Plus, there was the rice.
Most of the Joseon people who immigrated here to Primorsky Krai were from Hamgyeong-do, and specifically from the northern parts of Hamgyeong-do.
And most people from Hamgyeong-do cannot properly eat rice.
Not being able to eat it properly meant they couldn’t eat it because they didn’t have it, not that they didn’t know rice tastes much better than the potatoes or millet they usually ate.
It was said that if a woman from Hamgyeong-do ate three mal of rice from birth until she got married, she had eaten a lot.
No, in fact, it wasn’t just the women; men and women alike in northern Hamgyeong-do could be considered to never see rice unless it was a holiday or a memorial service.
But now, with 220 tons of rice laid out before them, they felt full just by looking at it, and everyone’s eyes turned ecstatic as they looked at the sacks of rice piled in the warehouse.
Seon-hui, who was now married and wore a hairpin in her hair, looked at me with an enchanted expression and said, “Is this all rice? Now I’m not going to eat potatoes or wheat; I’m only going to eat I-bap.”
I scolded her. “What are you talking about? You ate I-bap last year, too.”
“That was rice you bought from Japan, so for some reason, it didn’t feel like mine, and I couldn’t eat it with a relaxed heart. But since this is what we got from farming ourselves, now I can eat it without a care.”
“Alright, from now on, eat only I-bap every day to your heart’s content.”
Mikhail Yankovsky asked, “The harvest of hay and Oats has also increased significantly compared to before. Will this year’s income exceed 100,000 Rubles at this rate?”
“It will probably exceed that amount. The Russian Army is now in a position where they can’t survive without us, so they can’t just cut the price as they please.”
We earned a total of 110,000 Rubles by selling hay and Oats to the Russian Army, and besides that, we made a small profit by selling the leftover rice we didn’t eat to the Joseon people in Primorsky Krai.
And because of this, the number of Joseon people who wanted to come to Sidimi increased even further.