Chapter 69
A high-ranking person who has risen to the position of Vice Minister of Law couldn't possibly not know the advantages of competition.
However, in our empire, there's no concept of merchants competing with each other to benefit consumers and politicians.
While competition in the same industry is natural in Korea, in this world, it's nonsensical for people in the same industry to compete over profits.
'It's like Columbus's egg.'
Once someone comes up with it, there's nothing easier, but before someone thinks of it, no one dares to try.
The Vice Minister pretended to think while making a humming sound as I expected.
'Since it's a concept that hasn't existed until now, it would be difficult to understand without explaining it simply.'
"Think about when you're selecting a director for the Commercial Law Department under you, Vice Minister. When other section chiefs are competing for that position, they'll do their best to show good appearances to you, the Minister of Commercial Law, and other superiors."
It's decreased a bit lately.
But when it's personnel announcement season, there are people who suddenly have unusually high participation rates in company dinners, or volunteer for overtime or remote business trips.
In the Tuscan Empire where bribes are essentially legal, all sorts of gifts definitely go back and forth.
'The finest wine, money, land, famous swords and splendid armor, horses.'
Even though I didn't explicitly mention gifts being exchanged, the Vice Minister coughed dryly.
"Ahem, I'm not like that, but there are shameless fellows who work unusually hard starting two months before personnel announcements. As nobility of the robe, they should be devoted to work all the time like me."
Our Vice Minister seems to be someone who sends gifts regularly.
Besides this request, I should support him to work hard for the country whenever I think of it in the future.
"On the other hand, think about when there's already a designated person for the Commercial Law Department director position, and no competition occurs."
"Shameless fellows wouldn't devote themselves to work. And honestly, great merchants are people who only care about immediate profits and treat grand causes like scraps of paper. If there's no competition, their reason to show loyalty to His Majesty who guarantees their profits would decrease."
To understand a concept that doesn't exist in the empire currently after such a short explanation.
As expected, someone who has risen to Vice Minister (Deputy Minister) of the Commercial Law Department, one of the core departments of the administration, has an exceptionally brilliant mind.
Then for the next words, rather than me bringing them up...
Should I wait until he speaks on his own, making him think he realized it himself?
'They say it stays in memory longer if you think you realized it yourself rather than being told, right?'
"I've never thought this was a problem until now. But thinking about it carefully, it seems that the lack of competition among guilds over commercial rights has only been good for merchants."
The Vice Minister opened his eyes wide hearing my words.
His face was slightly flushed, as if showing he was greatly impressed.
He chewed his lips a few times and carefully asked.
"I'm sorry to say this, but aren't you, Viscount, closer to a merchant than a noble if we have to say? Then why are you challenging the vested interests established by merchants?"
Looking at it coldly, there's a limit to breaking through the glass ceiling created by big city guilds and great merchants colluding with just my own power.
So even when doing military supplies, it's obvious that selling cheaper would be more profitable, but I came up with the 'integrated trading company' and am going about it this way.
I'm not directly challenging industries that great merchants are dominating.
Because if I try to break through that glass ceiling, no, diamond ceiling, with just my own power, I might die.
'Courage and recklessness may seem like they're separated by just a sheet of paper, but the results are as different as heaven and earth.'
"Although I don't get along well with the current Baron Medici, Albert de Medici, I'm still clearly the second son of a baron family. As a noble, I've been taught from a young age that loyalty to His Majesty takes precedence over everything. That's why I've never done anything against honor even once until now."
Strictly speaking, I've never been caught doing anything dishonorable.
Selling seaweed and cotton and woolen fabrics in Guillaume City to evade taxes is dishonorable, but even the Emperor and Duke don't know.
And if you're not caught, it can't become a crime.
"It's a noble's duty to help firmly establish His Majesty's power."
In any country, politicians will even throw away the president elected by their own party if necessary.
In the Tuscan Empire where the concept of democracy doesn't exist, such things can't physically occur, but weakening imperial power to protect noble interests happens frequently.
Even England's Magna Carta and Bill of Rights were created by those who mouth off about the 'absoluteness of loyalty to the royal family' to protect their rights as nobles.
'Of course, what they did was right in justification and result.'
"For that, I, Viscount Fabio de Medici, will pluck out the poison-coated thorns of a thorny path one by one with bare hands if necessary. In this military supply, I entrusted all production to small city guilds with the idea of establishing a foundation for them to become self-reliant, and if we raise small city guilds like this someday..."
I deliberately cut off my words here to make him curious.
"Small city guilds will also grow in weight class, so they'll want to compete with guilds located in big cities. Then competition between guilds will arise, and they'll depend on His Majesty who has the authority to decide the winner."
Even I, who am receiving the Emperor's favor and rising fastest among nobles of my generation, find it difficult to have a private audience.
A small city guild master, no, a mere guild master couldn't possibly have a direct audience with the Emperor.
Then who will they first go to with money bundled up?
'The nobility of the robe, who are the Emperor's high-class slaves.'
"At that time, His Majesty will be able to break the commercial monopoly of guilds that have become like deep-rooted evils."
I'm not some eternally loyal subject, so it would be good to reveal my greed around here, right?
"I want to take some of the places left by the great merchants at the very top who disappear."
A smile formed on the Vice Minister of Commercial Law's face.
He must have been uncomfortable thinking I only cared about the Emperor, but now he realizes it was a thought that aligned my interests with the Emperor's.
'A loyal subject who seems to have no greed for wealth at all, like Admiral Yi Sun-sin, becomes an object of fear for the monarch and colleagues.'
That's why Won Gyun, a master of hypnosis, was able to succeed.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the incarnation of incorruptibility incomprehensible by their common sense, was admirable, but at the same time, looking into him would have felt similar to looking into an abyss.
'Instinctive avoidance of the incomprehensible.'
On the other hand, Won Gyun seemed capable and honest about his desires, so human trash like King Seonjo and worn-out ministers would have felt a kind of intimacy seeing him.
'Didn't someone say? If an ordinary person tries to follow Admiral Yi Sun-sin, they'll ruin their life.'
The course of his life is great, but it's an area that ordinary people like us can't even approach.
It's like someone who just started running trying to train every day in a way that would make even Usain Bolt run away scared.
"Hmm, hearing your story, it seems that having military supplies go through a form of connection between trusted trading companies and small city guilds would help the empire's national interests."
"It's an honor, Vice Minister."
"However, haven't you already taken on military supplies for two divisions? Giving you more isn't an easy matter."
I didn't think I could immediately receive military supplies on the scale of 10 divisions either.
"But I'll ask His Majesty to designate you as the tentative first priority."
"It's an honor, Vice Minister."
He said if I can't have it, don't give it to others.
That's how I can have it later.
Then I handed a check to the Vice Minister.
"It's a check for 1,000 gold coins. The source of funds is very clean. You can exchange it if you come to our trading company."
"...... I shouldn't do this."
But he received it as if he had no choice, without refusing.
"Ahem, ahem. I'll convey your words well to His Majesty."
With that, I left this place.
If you want to eat something big, you have to start by impressing the other person...
'It's important to look with a longer perspective.'
**
Where there is light, there is always shadow.
As those words say, the guild masters of Florence who enter the glass ceiling mentioned by Fabio, even if they're lower in rank than great merchants, gathered in one place.
Among them, there was no blacksmith guild master who had become Duke Visconti's faithful dog...
"Fabio de Medici. Isn't that guy running around too much?"
Goldsmith guild that also performs some banking functions, butcher guild, chef guild, miller guild, real estate guild, and so on...
Many guild masters nodded hearing those words.
"I don't intend to say anything about that bastard doing military supplies conscientiously. If we pick a fight over that, Duke Visconti, who's backing him, or His Majesty won't stand still."
Although they don't say it explicitly, the hidden meaning behind this is:
They don't want to touch him and bleed because it doesn't directly harm them.
"But that guy has already tamed the guild masters of two small cities to his side. Other great merchants can at least communicate well with each other, but would that young greenhorn try to talk with us?"
Originally, when people gather, they curse even the king if the person in question isn't there.
Moreover, although the power of each individual guild master here may not match Fabio's, if dozens of guild masters join forces?
They can exert tremendous political influence.
The number of Florence City Council seats held by the guild masters here is 1/3 of the total council members.
If they distribute bribes well, they can impose all kinds of regulations.
'That Fabio guy is greedy, so he might try to push us out.'
It's the law that you should either uproot someone likely to become a source of trouble, or educate them properly to make them grovel to you.
"Because of his backing, and since he hasn't directly challenged us, there's no need to draw swords immediately. But we should make him bruise. Does anyone have any good ideas?"
At those words, the spice guild master, who has power ranked in the top five among Florence guild masters, stood up.
"...... I have a good idea."