industrial lord

Chapter 706 The end of the road

The Golden Needle Chamber of Commerce is a legend that has been talked about in the city of Bolling in recent years.

One evening ten years ago, a couple stood blankly outside the dock with a shipload of goods from Weissenburg.

The tailor couple imagined their life after getting rich all the way. When they arrived at their destination, they suddenly realized that they had never run such a big business and didn't know what to do next.

Under the guidance of the God of Light, the tailor and his wife met another noble person in their lives.

More than ten years ago, a local businessman took his wife and two sons out on a business trip to see the world. No one expected that the Rhine River would burst its dam in the middle of the night, completely destroying the village where they were staying.

Fortunately, the businessman's debts were not much, and his mother was able to keep her own small building after paying off the debts. The first floor was a shop and warehouse, the second floor was a residence, and the third floor was the landlord's own residence.

That day the old lady came to the dock to look for new tenants, but found nothing the whole day. Finally, she saw the confused couple at sunset.

Fate makes the two gears meet and rotate together.

The old lady was both a landlord and a teacher, who gradually taught the tailor to become a qualified businessman.

The couple were both tenants and children, and they took care of the old lady as if she were their own mother. Even the most picky people in the city could not find any fault with her.

The shop changed from a grocery store to a tailor shop. Two years later, the sound of sewing machines could be heard, becoming louder and louder, and more and more people came here to work.

The tulip craze reached the city of Berlin. Four years ago, a merchant doing maritime business in the city had his ship sank, so he used the tulip bulbs he grew to pay off his debts to a tailor.

The tailor had never done this business before, so he took the goods to Amstel at the end of May. Seeing that the price of tulip bulbs in the market was rising every day, he decided to wait. However, in early June, he received a telegram that the old lady was seriously ill, so he immediately shipped the goods and rushed back.

This business earned him money to build a factory building and a hotel, but the old lady's health deteriorated and she passed away in the spring of the following year.

Knowing that she was dying, the old lady invited prominent gentlemen and bishops in the city to make a will and give the property to the tailor and his wife. Everyone thought it was what they deserved.

Two and a half years ago, the factory building and hotel were completed and put into use, and the Golden Needle Chamber of Commerce expanded rapidly like dough.

The original shops became places for displaying goods and negotiating business. The employees wore neat Wessen suits and greeted visitors from all over the world with great energy. The city's goods sent exquisite buttons, cloth merchants from Wessenburg brought the most fashionable fabric samples and lace, and garment buyers from the north and east selected the most fashionable clothes.

At the end of last year, a piece of news circulated in the city that a big shot in the Principality of Wessen - said to be the speaker of a certain city - was interested in cooperating with Sir Schneider.

For a time, Schneider's reputation in the city of Berlin skyrocketed.

But all this came to an abrupt end.

The Chamber of Commerce, which used to be crowded with visitors, suddenly became deserted and dreary. All the employees wearing nice clothes were gone, and only one accountant remained. Occasionally, someone would come in a hurry, bring overdue IOUs or promissory notes, and leave in a hurry with cash.

As the sun sets, the aroma of stewed potatoes and sausages fills the kitchen. Mrs. Schneider places the pot in the middle of the dining table, forces a smile on her face, and shares dinner with her two children and her husband.

Schneider forced a slight smile at the corner of his mouth and praised: "Your cooking skills are still so good."

In the past, their sons would have praised their mother's cooking skills.

But the children can now understand the atmosphere at home. The seven-year-old brother did not say anything and helped feed his two-year-old sister dinner.

Dinner ended in dull silence. The brother took his sister back to her room, and Schneider returned to the study and began to settle accounts as usual.

Most of the repayments I have to make recently are to local material suppliers. The total amount is not large. Some payments for goods have also been collected from the Chamber of Commerce. A while ago, I quietly went to Havelberg to sell my family’s jewelry and pocket watches, so I can still handle it this month.

However, these are only pebbles on the roadside. The real mountain is the two loans from Chief Justice Baumgart and Prison Warden Handel that must be repaid before noon on the last day of this month, with a total amount of 28750 florins.

The two sums of money were borrowed by Baumgart and Handel from other places, and Schneider used all his real estate and personal credit as collateral. This was the largest personal loan in the history of the city of Berlin. There was no such amount when it was the imperial capital before, and it was rare in the city of Weissenburg.

Schneider used this huge sum of money to purchase raw materials, add sewing machines, convert the warehouse into a workshop, increase wages and increase manpower, and finally produce the military uniforms needed by the Piast Kingdom in both quality and quantity.

However, the military uniforms had been delivered, but there was no news of payment. The loan repayment date was approaching, and Schneider was at the end of his rope.

Mrs. Schneider placed a cup of hot coffee on the desk and turned on the air conditioner.

Schneider suddenly said, "Dear, in a few days you can take the children and go back home by boat under the pretext of selling your property."

The lady's body trembled and she looked at her husband in disbelief.

Schneider swallowed and said with difficulty: "You and the children... from now on... use your father's surname. It is a noble and pure surname..."

The lady's hands began to tremble, and she asked nervously, "Honey, what...what do you want to do?"

Death, the death that cleanses everything.

Once this thought appeared in her mind, she couldn't get rid of it.

"Please don't abandon us!" She went over and hugged her husband tightly from behind. "It doesn't matter if the house, factory, and hotel are gone. We can just find a small house like before. You can cut and I'll sew the clothes!"

"If they're kind enough to leave us a sewing machine, we can still make it back."

"By the way, we can go to the Principality of Wessen together!"

Schneider smiled bitterly, patted his wife's arm, shook his head and said, "No, I have no future."

"There is one thing I have not told you for so many years."

"My relationship with Grand Duke Weisen is not that good, but Mammy taught me to make others think we have a good relationship so that we can do better business."

"Mammy also taught me that if you want to deceive others, you must first deceive yourself."

"I used to have some correspondence with Sir Romon. At the beginning, I was able to buy those sewing machines at a low price only through him."

"But starting two years ago, I wrote him several letters, but he didn't reply."

"This means...he discovered my lie and severed all ties with me."

Such tactics are common in the business world, and as long as they are not exposed, they are treated as if they were true.

The man who pretended to be a friend of Grand Duke Wessen incurred a huge debt that he was unable to repay and eventually went bankrupt. If Grand Duke Wessen knew about this, he would probably issue a killing order.

Schneider felt that his future life was dark.

Mrs. Schneider was so frightened by the news that her whole body began to tremble and her face turned pale.

She had always wondered why her husband didn't ask the Dawn Chamber of Commerce for help, but now she understood.

Schneider continued, "I heard that someone suggested not letting me leave the city."

At the same time, in a mansion in the city of Borling, someone ordered the chief justice and the warden: "Starting tomorrow, all newspapers in the city will publish a news report saying that the Grand Council of Wessen has come to help Schneider."

(End of this chapter)