Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1606 1578. Dealer

"Yes." Xileton immediately said with an expression of 'I have suffered for a long time but no one can understand', "I know you can understand, Lan En! My good friend!"

"There are many people who instigated this wave of chaos. Who are they?"

"There are our damn dealers! Those damn dealers are trying to deceive us! They think that if we sell less to Nilfgaard, they can make more money!"

"Some people think that if Nilfgaard loses its legitimate supply, they can smuggle goods to Nilfgaard at an extra high price!"

"Then there are the courtiers and great nobles in Redania and Temeria. Or rather, the northern nobles. They probably really want to ban Valyrian steel from Nilfgaard. But I guarantee, man, there's barely more than half a patriotic sentiment in this."

"They have a lot of connections with those dealers. If you think about it, it can strike a blow to Nilfgaard while making money for yourself. Why not do it?"

"And then?" Xileton held his big head in annoyance and pain, "And then there are the plagued Nilfgaardians themselves!"

"There have long been voices among the Nilfgaardians who want to research high-performance metal materials themselves! They would rather we stop selling them Valyrian steel so that they can stimulate their own merchant guilds and markets to increase their research investment!"

"They and our dealers used to be sworn enemies, but now that they have the same goal, of course they can stand together temporarily."

"The result is what is happening now. Our reputation is plummeting in the market."

Lan and Xileton both frowned.

Cassandra, on the other hand, basically tried to keep up with the pace when the topic just started, but soon, a series of words that she had never heard of and did not understand hit her.

Dealers, cross-selling, trade sanctions, guilds.
It completely destroyed her ability to understand.

In ancient Greece, trade in Athens and other city-states was booming, whether in terms of trade scope, trade volume, or various trade concepts and rules.

But that was, after all, only the early formative stage of civilization. Compared with the magical Middle Ages, which had already developed to the stage of equity, merchant alliances, guilds and markets, it seemed very immature.

Not to mention that even in ancient Greece, Cassandra was not someone who understood trade.

When Herodotus first went to Andros and found the remains of a forge left by the Isu, he started talking about Andros' marble trade and its market share in the surrounding city-states.

She and Barnabas' impression of Andros Island was that it was a place name in mythology, the tomb of Achilles, the first warrior of Greece.

"Wait, wait." Cassandra raised a finger and shook it next to her ear, as if she had finally sorted out some clues from her chaotic thoughts. "Although I don't quite understand what you are talking about, the key is the group of people called dealers, right?"

"Since we have a target, why not just solve it? Why not just take action against them?"

Sillerton and Lan looked at each other.

This time the dwarf did not look at Cassandra with surprise. After all, even if this kind of thing was told to the locals of the magical Middle Ages, only a very few people would be able to understand it based on the popular concepts of education and business.

"That's the problem, Cassandra." Lann explained. "The dealers are not a secret group of a few specific people, like the Cult of Kosmos you're hunting."

"It's a position? A role? Do you understand?"

"As long as a person reaches this position, he is a dealer. And if the interests required by the dealer position remain unchanged, then every dealer will develop into this position."

Cassandra vaguely understood: "But now you have to set up, or rely on the position of dealers, in order to sell Valyrian steel smoothly, so you say it's not easy to do it, right?"

This is not a matter of one person or small group corrupting a position, but rather the nature of the position itself determines its interests.

Ultimately, the person who gets the position has to comply with this interest.

If I have to say it: it is not the alienation of man from it, but its alienation from man.

Looking at the troubled Xileton, Lan En fully understood what was difficult for him.

The dealers were supposed to be a group of people in the same camp as their Valyria Chamber of Commerce.

However, in the complex and ever-changing conflicts of interest among all parties, they would temporarily stab the Valyria Chamber of Commerce and make it bleed.

Lan En and his team cannot use overly aggressive methods to manage dealers.

Because they still need this role to play a role in the Chamber of Commerce, and replacing a group of people will not change anything in the end.

If you want to make fundamental changes, you have to directly target the business model of the Valyria Chamber of Commerce.

Change the dealer model to direct sales.

But in today's environment, this will bring about huge cost increases, including employee costs, management costs, transportation costs, and so on.

In the end, perhaps the profits from Valyrian Steel's business plan, which has explosively high profit margins, may not be able to cover the profits!
The complexity of the reality lies in this: success in the world is because you are in me and I am in you. Failure is also because you are in me and I am in you.

"This is not something that can be resolved in a short period of time." Lan En first set the tone for the matter, "and at the moment, the impact does not seem to be serious, nor is it urgent."

"That's what I said." Xi Leton was still worried, "but the situation is so tense now, and our reputation has been declining again and again. Maybe it will accumulate and cause a big incident in the end."

The last time Lan was in Aretusa for a meeting, Berengar and he were extremely worried about the racial disputes within the factory area. They were afraid that humans and non-human races would kill each other directly.

It may seem like a minor incident now, but if the psychological pressure on the masses is really ignited as the war progresses unfavorably, and finally burns to the Valyrian steel factory, then it will not be something that the factory area can control behind closed doors.

That's the entire Gos Velen factory area!

"Let's do this for now." After thinking about Sillerton's concerns about the future, Lan En simply said, "First of all, don't even think about changing the business model for now."

If you want to switch to direct sales, then you will have very high requirements for communication and transportation efficiency in the business environment, otherwise you won’t be able to expand your business too much.

However, this demand for infrastructure still has a long way to go in this magical Middle Ages.

"But since the biggest concern right now is safety, we must first ensure the safety of the factory area in Gos Velen."

"What should we do?" Xileton completely agreed with this point, and jumped off the chair a little impatiently, "Should we hire more guards? Do you know other demon hunters? Why don't you call them all over?"

"If you ask me, our Chamber of Commerce should have had some armed forces a long time ago! What's the point of being like this all the time? Other well-known Chambers of Commerce have their subordinates sign long-term contracts with some mercenary groups!"

The red-bearded dwarf spoke noisily.

As he spoke, he refilled the silver cup in his hand with wine, then tilted his head back and drank it in one gulp.

But Lan just looked down at him calmly: "Listen to what nonsense you are talking about? Don't let the pressure influence your thinking to extremes, Xi Leton."

"Even if you sign a mercenary group, when the citizens of Gos Velen become a mob, will those mercenaries dare to stand in front of them to block them? Or will they dare to just massacre the citizens?"

In the case of riots, such as the massacres of non-human races that have broken out in many cities.

In Lan En's eyes, it was normal to kill the mob in this situation.

But the trouble with this kind of thing is that once there are too many people involved, the nature of the problem changes.

If a cult leader who is full of fallacies and heresies has only a dozen followers, then it is of course a cult.

But if he has hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, you should call him the Archbishop of Eternal Fire.

Killing a few people in self-defense is fine, but if you kill too many, it's hard to say whose fault it is.

Apart from the military, basically no one dares to claim this title.

As a certain literary giant said: If this cat disturbs people with its meowing and scratches people with its claws, people will naturally be angry with it. But if I really hit it or drive it away, then the anger will be directed at me, and it will immediately become the pitiful character who is bullied.

"Then what should we do?!"

Xi Leton spread his hands.

Cassandra was also puzzled. After all, increasing defense capabilities as risks increase has always been a common idea since ancient times.

Lan En shook his head: "When faced with a violent problem, the solution is not necessarily violence."

"We still haven't stopped selling Valyrian steel to Nilfgaard. So compared to the Valyrian steel we sold, how much profit do we bring to the northern kingdoms?"

Instead of responding directly to Xileton, he turned around and asked a question.

"Of course it's bigger!" Xileton said without hesitation, "We belong to a high-profit chamber of commerce, and we have heavy taxes. There are also punitive measures for trading with Nilfgaard."

"Our sales network covers the entire north, so this delivery will be at least four copies!"

"Compared to the Valyrian steel sold to Nilfgaard, the money we pay to the North has much more influence! Besides, the Nilfgaardians have also begun to research high-performance metals themselves, and the import volume is shrinking year by year."

It is said that merchants have no motherland, and the Sillerton and Giancardi families do not consider Temeria as their motherland.

But the key is that they still have racial problems!
As dwarves, they did not dare to underestimate the persecution of non-human races by the Nilfgaard Empire.

The situation in the north is serious, but at least we can still see some non-human figures.

The people in the South had been exterminated more than a hundred years ago! This is the peaceful scene of "racial harmony".

If it really was aiding the enemy, Giancardi Bank would have to stop Sillerton.

Moreover, the positions of important forces within the Chamber of Commerce, such as Berengar, Lann, and Aretuza, are clearly against Nilfgaard.

Xi Leton is not stupid.

"That's easy." Lan En shrugged and said, "Okay, now take out the money you planned to use to hire soldiers."

"Why?"

Lan walked to the desk and unceremoniously took Berengar, who had already begun to metabolize the toxins, aside.

As he picked up the quill on the table, he said, "We should invite the bard."

(End of this chapter)