Empire of the Ring

Apart from doing business with Mittal, Youngho leaked some of the secrets of the taiga forest to stimulate his collector’s obsession.

Most collectors were a little obsessive-compulsive. If they did not get what they wanted when they wanted, it made them frustrated and nervous as they thought the item they wanted could fall into someone else’s hands.

So the rabid collectors would run regardless of price or distance to get their hands on the things they wanted.

“Do you have diamond stones or meteorites, too?”

“I don’t have a hobby of collecting them, but I keep them because I accidentally got some in my hand.”

“Your Highness, if you don’t mind, can I take a look?”

“We haven’t seen the meteorite yet, but we have some diamond stones. I don’t know if they’re good enough for your standard.”

“It doesn’t matter. Let me at least take a look.”

Despite his age, he looked like a child eager to get his hands on a new toy.

“Well, it’s really nothing. I’ll give it to you as a gift if you like it.”

Youngho asked Min-seok to bring me some stones, and Mittal fidgeted around in Youngho’s office for a dozen minutes waiting.

After a while, Mittal, who held a fairly thick diamond stone brought by Min-seok, seemed satisfied as if he had the whole world in his hands.

“They say they’re low-grade diamonds for industrial use.”

“Collectors don’t buy jewelry. It’s valuable as a collection only if it stayed as a gemstone. Because what looks trivial in the eyes of ordinary people looks different in the eyes of collectors. It’s the eye that recognizes the pearl in the soil.”

“Take them with you, if you like. They’re of little use to me. In the eyes of people like us, jewelry is more important.”

“Are you sure I can have items so precious like these?”

Even though the gemstones were classified for industrial use, Mittal treated them so preciously that it made Youngho wonder. It was also strange because Mittal was able to get his hands on such stones at any time if he wanted to with his financial ability.

“Chairman, you can get as much of these as you can with your powers. Am I wrong?”

“Every stone has its own characteristic. So collectors are only looking for raw stones. But the problem is that it’s hard to find such rare raw stones. It’s because people can make more money when they process the stones and sell them in the market.”

“Is there any stone in your collection?”

“Sure, I have a lot of stones. But I still find it pleasurable when I meet new stones.”

Youngho thought that he had such an odd hobby.

Mittal had a lot of things, but yet, he kept looking for new ones.

It was understandable since Youngho was the same in a sense. His love for gold mines was great and he always looked for new mines even though he had enough gold mines.

“Do you collect paintings, too?”

“I’m not really interested in things that are difficult to store. I’m collecting permanent and invariable things as much as possible.”

“I see.”

As expected, Mittal showed the same interest as Youngho.

Youngho was not really interested in paintings, he was only interested in gold or diamond stones.

He believed that a real collection was a collection of what he could store and use whenever he needed to.

“Then you must be interested in gold bars, too.”

Mittal sparkled his eyes when he mentioned gold bars.

It would be strange if a wealthy entrepreneur was not interested in gold bars.

“I wanted to ask you anyway, but I was being hesitant. I heard the Kazakh royal family has a lot of gold.”

“It’s not a great amount. I guess it has been exaggerated by people who like to talk.”

Even though he said he had not much, Mittal still asked to buy gold bars from Youngho.

“Your Highness. Will you give me a chance, too? I’m willing to pay more than the market price.”

***

Mittal said he had as much as five billion dollars in cash, apart from his real estate and company shares.

While Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, was said to have 76 billion dollars in assets, which included all the stock value, Mittal’s wealth, five billion in cash excluding real estate and stocks, surprised Youngho.

Even if his company went bankrupt and its shares were wiped out, Mittal would be able to recover from it easily with the amount of his own cash.

It was not much compared to Youngho’s cashable assets, but it should be considered great if an individual had that much cash.

Even after buying fighter jets and Apache helicopters and building numerous warships, Youngho’s still had more than nine billion dollars.

The reason why much cash was still available was that the shares of global companies owned by Youngho and profits from shipyards, hotels, shipping business, wine companies, and the companies under the royal territory exceeded two billion dollars a year.

In addition, the gold reserves totaled about 720 tons, including gold bars collected from the family of the former president, Nazarbayev and gold produced so far.

And even now, the gold produced in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, exceeded 80 tons a year.

The annual output was about 4.4 billion dollars at today’s prices, but central banks in advanced countries, which bought gold according to their policies, saw 80 tons of gold worth more than six billion dollars.

It was evident that the currency had fallen by that much.

Otherwise, why would they buy gold 1.5 times more expensive than the market price?

Mittal said he would have no wish if he had ten tons of gold.

He said he was afraid to hold onto the dollar and the euro, which were falling daily.

As he was getting older, he was becoming more scared of the uncertain future of his business and personal wealth.

“Your Highness, I’ll pay you a billion dollars. So give me a chance.”

“I can’t charge you twice as much as the market price. What would anyone think of me if they knew about it?”

Youngho could see why Mittal would buy gold at an exorbitant price.

The price was skyrocketing because there was a lot of demand for gold.

“It would be cheaper to buy in small quantities on the black market.”

“How much gold can you buy in the black market? It would take years to get the amount of gold I want. And it costs more to collect gold and buy it in silence. If there’s a rumor, I won’t be able to carry my face.”

“Our royal family doesn’t have that much gold. In the meantime, we’ve been selling too much to cover the defense budget.”

“Your Highness, I heard there are about ten royal gold mines and dozens of tons produced in a year.”

“Well, although the production of royal gold mines has increased dramatically in recent years, it is a strategic asset that needs to be stockpiled for the future of Kazakhstan.”

“Then let me make a suggestion. There’s a resort craze in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan these days, but it’s not our group’s area of expertise, but I’d like to invest in it.”

“Oh, I still don’t think…”

Although Youngho showed unwillingness, he was glad to hear it.

It was a bit unexpected for a steelmaker to enter the resort business, but it was not an outrageous investment because the resort could be used as a training center for employees even if the business was slow.

These days, many global companies lent famous resorts and provided rest areas for their executives and employees.

***

When Mittal said that he would invest in the resort business on the condition of buying gold, the tug-of-war ended in a bland manner.

It was the condition of selling ten tons of gold for a billion dollars in cash and on top of 300 million dollars of construction investment for a resort.

Mittal also believed that he had benefited from the deal.

The central banks of each country were basically giving extra money to secure gold and even promised currency swaps in some cases.

In such a situation, it was impossible for an individual to get ten tons of gold bars.

Mittal, who finished the contract, looked very satisfied. He had just added gold to his private collection.

“You know, if you’re rumored to have gold in your possession, you can be a target, so be careful at all times. If you don’t have a place to keep the gold, we’ll keep it for you in our royal palace.”

“Hahaha… It’s very satisfying to look at the collected items, are you trying to take that joy away from me? My safe is not as strong as the royal family’s safe, but it is still quite strong.”

“Haha… I almost ruined your hobby. It’s twice the pleasure if you keep your collection close by.”

“Your Highness. I can’t be full with my first bite, so I’d like to visit you often and talk candidly about it. Would that be okay?”

Mittal meant that he wanted to buy more gold bars in the future.

“I can’t say no, given your role as a bridge between our country and the Indian government. But, please keep the facts of our transaction to yourself.”

“Of course. You will see that I can keep a secret.”

“That’s great. We’ll give you a ton a year from now on.”

“Thank you. Your Highness, I will repay the kingdom of Kazakhstan with more investment.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t invest. Your interest in Kazakhstan is a huge boost. I’d be grateful if you could help boost economic exchanges between the two countries in the future.”

Kazakhstan’s most urgent problem was addressing a shortage of manufactured goods.

Although it had been building countless factories to escape Chinese manufactured goods, complete self-sufficiency had been difficult.

That was why securing an import ship that could reliably supply cheap and high-quality manufactured goods was necessary, and India was a perfect fit for Kazakhstan’s needs.