Chapter 53
A person who has gathered 9.9 billion wants to use any means to reach 10 billion.
It's not that greed disappears after gathering 10 billion; the next step is wanting to become a 100 billion-level rich person.
My excellent, no, VIP customer, the mayor, brightened his eyes at the better opportunity presented before him.
"If someone else said it, I would have been suspicious, but if it's you, Fabio, I should believe you even if you say you'll extract gold from sand. Well, what's this good opportunity?"
"I want to import large quantities of wool and cotton through Guillaume City."
"I'd like you to tell me specifically how much you want to buy."
"I want to buy enough for 5,000 rolls of woolen fabric and 15,000 rolls of cotton fabric. Later, I'm thinking of increasing this scale to about 3 times."
To a 21st century Korean, this might not seem like such a large quantity.
Often, the scale of clothes traded in deals handled by a single employee in a company is much larger than this.
However, that's because technology has developed so much after industrialization; for a single trading company to handle, this amount is already very large.
'If I were to act as a broker, the story would be different.'
"Do you intend to sell raw materials to the Tuscan Empire?"
Common sense says this is correct.
But I'm not some great merchant, and there's hardly any profit to be gained from brokerage trade, so why would I bother jumping in?
Of course, I'm thinking of processing all the raw materials for those 20,000 rolls into cloth for making clothes and selling them.
"That's not it, I intend to process all of them into woolen and cotton fabrics and resell them."
The mayor's eyes widened hearing my words.
"Processing wool or cotton and selling it does make a lot of money. But can you handle it? It will take a lot of manpower to make cloth."
Mayor Guillaume is not a completely trustworthy ally.
However, he's a comrade who can be trusted in most situations.
I can't teach him all the secrets of our territory, but I can teach him to some extent.
No, I have to tell him because he wouldn't believe me at all if I didn't tell him anything.
I lowered my voice and carefully spoke as if secretly sharing stock trading room information.
"This is something that really only you should know, Mr. Mayor."
As the atmosphere of sharing top-secret information that only I know settled in, Mayor Guillaume's concentration level shot up.
He looked like he was about to shoot beams from his eyes.
"It's a bit embarrassing for me to say, but I'm closer to a merchant than a noble, right? While managing the village, I realized one thing."
"What's that?"
"Even in a village without specialty products, making serfs do weaving instead of just farming allows for collecting more taxes. By my estimation, it can bring about 20% more profit."
The profit standard mentioned here is when not using any new technologies like the 'flying shuttle' I invented or spinning machines.
If I run the latest machines that only I use in our territory, it will produce at least 10 times more.
As people become skilled with the machines, the profit rate will increase even more.
'Well, even so, a 20% tax increase is definitely not trivial.'
Mayor Guillaume also swallowed hard hearing my words.
"I think I'll soon receive a territory too, I should manage it like you do."
Hearing those words, the term 'enclosure movement' came to my mind.
That notorious act was implemented in the 15th century in that country which accounts for a large portion of half of all international conflicts in the 21st century.
Because making woolen fabric from wool was profitable, lords drove out their native serfs without any measures, turning them into paupers.
As a result, social welfare (in the form of labor re-education) was inevitably started in England.
I wonder if something similar will happen in the Kingdom of Lyon?
'If something similar happens in our Tuscan Empire, I should introduce the four-field system.'
If everyone stakes their lives on wool production, food prices will skyrocket.
"Don't do it too obviously. Good things are only good when I monopolize them alone."
This principle is being proven by self-employed people in 21st century South Korea.
It might seem good that everyone opens tanghulu shops because tanghulu is trendy, or everyone starts mala tang because mala tang is popular.
At first, business might be okay.
The problem is that when you do what others are doing, your value in the market drops sharply.
Because it has become too common.
In the end, most business owners end up not even getting 1 million won in their hands even if they work over 100 hours a week.
No, I hear that even getting 1 million won in take-home pay for 100 hours of work is above average.
Therefore, if you want to succeed in any business, you must absolutely differentiate yourself from others.
'That's why I'm trying to hide the fact that I'm weaving cotton and woolen fabrics.'
"If you just produce and entrust the volume to me, I'll sell it for you. Without commission."
"Can you really do that?"
"What kind of relationship do we have, Mr. Mayor? We're essentially allies, just with different nationalities."
I can penetrate the market of the Kingdom of Lyon through him, and he can achieve merits because the city prospers thanks to me selling things like seaweed.
Even family members often backstab each other by borrowing money and not paying back, or running away after standing as guarantors due to profit relationships in this world.
If it's a relationship where mutual benefits are guaranteed, that's an ally.
"If I only had a daughter of suitable age, I'd give her to you."
"I'll gratefully accept your feelings."
"By the way, why are you trying to buy only wool and cotton from our Kingdom of Lyon? Considering transportation costs, it would be good to use those from the Tuscan Empire too."
Buying and selling abroad is hard to notice unless the imperial family conducts a tax investigation.
Domestic transactions leave various traces of evidence, so they should be avoided as much as possible.
There's no need to tell all this, so I should deflect.
"So far, there are no nobles in the Kingdom of Lyon who have complaints about me, but it wouldn't look good to just keep selling and raking in money, would it? So I'm trying to buy a lot of wool and cotton, which are specialties of the Kingdom of Lyon."
This was the cause of the Opium Wars, which even the British Empire, which committed the most detestable acts in human history, thought was a bit too much.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty held a unilateral trade advantage over Britain in trade, and as a result, Britain's national interests were being infringed upon.
Britain, which hates losing money as much as dying, eventually sold opium and completely ruined the Qing Dynasty.
It's a war that broke out because the Qing Dynasty, which couldn't stand the selling of opium, complained.
Well, selling seaweed probably won't cause such a large-scale problem...
It's important to bow your head appropriately before problems arise.
"Viscount Guillaume also said that a few financial managers in the Kingdom of Lyon were looking at you unfavorably. This should solve that now."
Well, I did just take profits even though I sold good products.
"Alright, then how about a drink now? I have something I prepared specially for your visit."
Expensive wine is good, but since I've come this far, I should promote coffee too.
"Alcohol is good, but before that, why don't you try this?"
"Did you bring some tea?"
"It's coffee, a drink that heretics drink, but I brought it because it's a tonic that clears the mind and is good for virility."
When he heard it was a drink that heretics drink, Mayor Guillaume's brow furrowed slightly.
However, when he heard it was good for virility, a smile appeared on his lips.
"Even His Majesty the Emperor of the Tuscan Empire said he would have a new child at an old age after drinking this. Ahem, ahem."
Mayor Guillaume urged me to bring it out quickly.
"My long-standing erectile dysfunction was cured after eating the seaweed soup you told me about. If it's something you recommend, how could I not drink it even if it's poison?"
He looks like he might get extremely angry if I bring it out late.
I should brew it quickly before such a disaster happens.
I took out the portable coffee brewing set I had brought.
I ground the pre-roasted beans with a grinder, brought hot water and poured it.
The deep aroma of coffee filled the office.
"The aroma is good. The taste is bitter but goes down smoothly, it's really nice."
"Thank you."
"And I feel like I'm wide awake and my mind is clearing. And for some reason, I feel like strength is welling up."
It's the awakening effect from excess caffeine.
Medieval Europeans mistook this for improved virility, and along with chocolate, considered it the best aphrodisiac.
"I'm sorry, but I'll have to drink the wine tomorrow. I need to go see my wife today."
To go see his wife right after drinking that, he's unexpectedly faithful.
"I'm a bit tired today and want to rest too."
"Alright, then let's see each other tomorrow."
With those words, Mayor Guillaume left the office with quite quick steps.
The cheerful sound of his footsteps suggests he gained great confidence.
Well, they say that for men over 40, whether it stands well or not becomes the measure of confidence.
"Then should I wrap up the work here and go back now?"
**