Chapter 68 - 77: Buy One, Get One Free
Cheap!
In postwar Europe, everything was so cheap, and yet so expensive.
A few cigarettes could buy you a night with a woman; a loaf of bread could make a girl lift her skirt.
The contrast between cheap and expensive was so stark. Human life was cheap; goods were precious.
"With the crew, the fleet can get moving. Although there are still German submarines in the Mediterranean, they usually don’t attack Spanish merchant ships—especially empty ones. The problem is, after leaving Taranto, where do we go? Before the war, we could go through the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean, but now the British have closed the canal. Without their permission, we can’t get through at all."
Actually, Pierre had thought the same thing—this was even why he registered a Spanish company. After all, Spain’s neutral stance had always been ambiguous, with both the Allies and Germany doing everything possible to keep it from joining the other side.
As for the Suez Canal, Pierre believed the issue could be resolved through Washington.
After all, with Truman’s influence, he could definitely help.
But now, with Berlin’s promise, the problem was much simpler.
"We’ll go straight through Gibraltar into the Atlantic, then head for the Caribbean, pass through the Panama Canal, and enter the Pacific. There are business opportunities everywhere there."
What’s the situation in South America now?
Those countries never had many merchant ships to begin with. Their goods transport relied entirely on Britain and America. But after the war broke out, British and American merchant ships all returned home, leaving them with no way to export their goods. This was true for Brazil and Argentina on the east coast, and also for Peru and Chile on the west coast.