NABC Chapter 98 No merchant is honest, but this merchant is especially cunning.
Chapter 98 No merchant is honest, but this merchant is especially cunning.
Gebu ordered the meat clerk to arrange the food, then sat down at the table to eat and drink heartily, while the child stood beside him explaining the results of today's market research.
"Uh..." The little girl stared longingly at the food on the table, forgetting what she was going to say.
"Awoo awoo... Tell me? What are you waiting for?" Gebu asked, looking up. In front of the girl, he didn't need to hide his goblin appearance and ate with abandon.
"Ah... I looked left and right, ran left and right, ate a big chicken leg on the left and ate a big chicken leg on the right..."
The hostage stared wide-eyed at Gebu gnawing on a chicken leg, his mouth slurping up something.
Gebu sighed as he watched the girl's mind go blank with craving, then waved for her to come and eat with him.
The girl timidly sat down, tied on a napkin, and set out the knife and fork.
"What's the point of being picky when you're poor?" Gebu ripped off the napkin, tore off a leg from the roast chicken with his bare hands, and handed the greasy chicken to the meat ration coupon.
The little girl hesitated for a moment, then took it.
"Awoo awoo awoo." Gebu ate heartily.
"Awoo awoo...cough cough." The child imitated him, eating too fast and almost choked.
"Crunch, crunch." Gebu gnawed on the soft bone.
"Crunch, crunch." The child gnawed on the cartilage.
"Ton ton ton." Gebu drank his wine.
"Ton ton ton." The child drinks apple juice.
After a gust of wind swept away the remaining clouds, Gebu patted his belly.
"belch."
The child pats his belly.
"belch."
After a satisfying meal, the two slumped in their chairs for a while, feeling quite sleepy.
Gebu glanced at the hostage: "Speak."
The hostage looked completely bewildered. "What did you say?"
Hey! This little rascal, he swallowed everything he said!
waste!
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According to the child's description, the merchants had been busy during the two weeks the caravan stayed in the town. They were buying large quantities of local specialties: red sand, a high-grade red dye.
Geb remembered that Alphonse had mentioned this product; he seemed eager for caravans to sell it in the Empire and open up new markets.
That way, the town will prosper, Gebu thought. And the lord will be rich too.
The town is popular, and the local church is thriving. Clearly, it's a win-win situation. I don't know why that old priest just can't grasp this concept.
Back to the present: the caravan spent a lot of gold, and these coins circulated among the locals: the people of Chifang Town had more money in their hands, everyone became wealthy, and the streets prospered.
In addition, at this time of year, the autumn harvest is coming to an end, and the farmers who have free time come to the town to do odd jobs—which is why Gebu was able to hire so many people in a short period of time.
For all these reasons, the town was bustling with activity. Gebu noticed this when he visited the various shops today: the shop owners weren't particularly interested in interacting with customers, since they had plenty of other customers anyway.
Where is the best place to do business?
"The tavern and the pink house," the hostage said to Geb.
"What is the pink house?" Gebu asked.
"The place where you break a dog's legs," the child replied.
"Huh?" Gebu was completely confused. What? People in this area have this custom?
The child walked to the window and pointed to a two-story building with pink lights hanging at the end of the main street.
"An auntie said that if she found her husband going to that pink house, she'd break his dog's legs," the child said blankly. "But what did the dog do wrong? Why break the dog's legs?"
Ah this...
Gebu thought for a moment, then rubbed his forehead and said:
"Because if we don't break the dog's legs, we might have to remove its testicles."
"What's 'dog egg'?" the hostage asked.
You'll understand when you grow up.
Despite the complaints, upon closer examination, the booming business in these two places is not without reason.
Where there's demand, there's a market. People have money in their pockets, and since there aren't many other entertainment options in the area, it's naturally all about eating, drinking, and... well, you know.
But how do we turn that into profit?
Gebu thought for a moment. He had a little over 1500 gold coins in his pocket, far from 5000. He would need to at least double that amount...
Taverns and brothels are quite popular... What business opportunities are there in these two places?
Based on the people Gebu encountered, the Old Kingdom was a place with a relatively repressive culture as a whole. People seemed cold and aloof, only taking off their masks and showing their unrestrained side under specific circumstances.
Yes, it's after having a couple of drinks—everyone, young and old, men and women, drinks alcohol.
Taverns and brothels, places of entertainment, were also places for heavy drinking.
Geb is a goblin who loves to eat and drink. He likes and drinks all kinds of things, including mead, barley wine, cider, and wine.
"Could we sell alcohol?" Gebu wondered. "Start with brewing?"
Brewing is no simple task; even just selecting the raw materials requires great skill. Our local wheat is excellent, making our barley wine exceptional.
Making wheat into malt and then fermenting it... that takes too much time.
Alchemy does have methods for distilling alcohol, but is it really safe to put that stuff in your mouth...?
Fake alcohol is harmful. If people die from it, then we're doomed.
Another way is to buy their spirits from the dwarves. Dwarves have a certain resistance to toxins and are all heavy drinkers. Their spirits are so strong and spicy that most humans simply cannot handle them.
Geb glanced at the empty glass in front of him: wine, apple juice...
Could we mix it up? Isn't this called... a cocktail?
Alcohol sells better than medicine, and it's also cheaper and less time-consuming, plus you don't have to steer clear of the church's red lines.
Geb instructed the children to tidy up the table, then boiled bathwater, while he himself lay on the table calculating the cost and profit of selling cocktails.
First, use the Book of Sand to check the caravan's cargo list and prices for reference... Then check the bills at the local taverns to see how much people are willing to spend on a drink.
The cheapest barrel of dwarf agave costs around 20 gold coins (that's damn expensive!), and it's about 20 liters.
One cocktail contains 40 milligrams of spirits, so 20000/40 = 500 cocktails.
The cost of each cup of spirits is 4 copper coins. The cost of mixed drinks is generally around 2 copper coins, so the total cost is 6 copper coins per cup.
The cheapest beer in this tavern costs only 4-6 copper coins a glass, and the cost of this drink is only 6 copper coins, so it's not very competitive.
Reduce the alcohol concentration by half, one barrel for 1000 cups!
The cost has been reduced to 4 copper coins per cup, which is an acceptable price.
It can sell for 8 copper coins, or even 1 silver coin. Everyone wants to try something new. A net profit of 6 copper coins.
Business has been booming lately. A tavern in this town can sell about 600 cups of wine a day. With two taverns, an inn, and a brothel, the total sales volume is around 2000 cups.
If you can capture a quarter of the market, you can sell 500 cups a day, earning 6 copper coins per cup, which is 30 gold coins for 500 cups.
30 a day... that's not high, about the same as the profit from a bottle of medicine.
Gebu looked at the number and felt somewhat disheartened. However, every little bit counts; 30 gold coins is still money. Moreover, if he could capture half of the market, he could earn 60 gold coins, which was quite a lot. Five days would be 300 gold coins, and a month would be 1800 gold coins… although he wouldn't be staying here for that long.
In that case, we need to promote it... In this town, the population mobility is not high. Once we have the first batch of customers, word will spread, and soon everyone will want to have a drink.
If this beverage could spread to taverns in the surrounding villages, or even to other parts of the kingdom... he would have a long-term, legitimate way to make money.
Hmm... Am I being too narrow-minded? The goblin suddenly thought.
Instead of selling counterfeit alcohol, why not sell a brand?
Even the most skilled herbalist only earns a meager living through hard work. But if they could collaborate with the dwarves to repackage their traditionally herbal spirits into a popular beverage suitable for all ages, the business would be enormous.
Wine tycoon Geb... Hmm, that sounds like a good title.
However, selling dwarven wine yourself may require a trading license.
Gebu thought for a moment, then decided that he could either find a dwarf wine merchant to label his wine or secretly sell black wine to tavern owners... This was a channel he needed to research.
If you're looking for stability, the former is better, but it might require making concessions. I wonder if the dwarves would be willing to cooperate with a stranger. Based on past experience… it's unlikely. Dwarves are very wary of outsiders.
How complicated! Making money is so hard! Gebu rolled around on the bed, clutching the tips of his ears—the hostage mimicked him, spinning around on the floor like a Thomas the Tank Engine. Two tops spun around in the room.
True to Gebu's style, if he can't get things done through official channels, he'll resort to underhanded methods. Is there a loophole I can exploit?
The traveling merchant license restricted transactions between towns.
In theory, if the raw materials for the wine are purchased from the dwarves, processed locally, mixed with local juice, and then sold, wouldn't that be considered an inter-town transaction?
In a cocktail, fruit juice makes up the majority of the volume, while alcohol accounts for only a small portion, less than 10%.
Therefore, it cannot be said that they are selling alcohol; it must be said that they are selling fruit juice.
After thinking about it, Gebu realized that this logic made sense.
Since this business license is so hard to obtain, Gebu doesn't believe that all the shops on this street have licenses.
How can a shop sell everything locally? Take a hat shop, for example. Even if the leather used to make the hats is locally produced, what about the needles and thread? The rivets on the hats? Are all the metal tools used by the hat maker made from materials produced within a ten-mile radius? This place doesn't produce iron ore at all; all of these come from outside, including all the products from the blacksmith shop.
Therefore, tracing back to the source, all trade inevitably involves goods originating from other places. The licensing system can't be that strict, otherwise no one would be able to do business.
This is a gray area... Gray areas are great! Gebu doesn't want the red ocean or the blue ocean in his business; he prefers to swim freely in the gray ocean.
Once the business is established, and the person in charge is given enough benefits, even gray can be turned white.