At the same time, because of disaster relief, Wanjin's financial pressures were also enormous. To recover quickly, Wanjin was desperately dumping ironware and iron materials on the market, which caused the prices of iron goods at Atsuta Port to plummet. So...
Private businessmen like Hirajima Yoshichiro were out of luck. The "State-Owned Iron Workshop" only needed Harano's command to start selling iron for the price of firewood—they could lose money to their grandmothers and still not care. But for the private workshop owners, they didn't even need to lose money; not making a profit was enough to kill them.
Ishikuro was also helpless against this broader trend. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "It's a lot harder to enter the Wanjin ironworks now than it used to be. Jiro, if you want to go, you'll probably only be able to get some temp work at first. The pay isn't very good—you'd really be lowering yourself..."
