The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 501 Exclusive Agency (Part 2)

Truly capable businessmen are not afraid of any competition!
Especially this kind of open competition.

However, what displeased the foreign merchants was that this agency status required spending real money to acquire.

I've never encountered a transaction like this before.

Do I need to buy a qualification before I can buy goods?
However, it must be admitted that these secret recipes of Eastern royalty, which have been passed down for thousands of years, do have a lot to offer.

Anyone with a bit of business sense would find it hard to refuse such a qualification.

Amidst the grim expressions of the crowd, the translator, Marco Berardi, delivered his statement without any emotional expression:
"Each fragrance has a term of three, five, or ten years."

The corresponding franchise fees are in silver: 30,000 taels, 50,000 taels, and 100,000 taels.

These franchise fees are starting bids, with a minimum of 30, 50, or 100 yuan, and no upper limit.

Foreigners:
What?
Is this agent's statue made of gold?
Before you've even bought anything, you have to shell out a huge sum of money.

Many foreigners want to buy a portion of each of the eight different scented dews at once.

Each one has a unique fragrance, and it would be a shame to miss out on any of them.

With things going like this, who has the strength to acquire the distribution rights for all eight fragrance products?

What broke their defenses even more was yet to come.

Marco Berardi then became a ruthless translator:

"Afterwards, distributors can purchase the perfume with a minimum order of 1,000 units. Orders exceeding 3,000 units will receive a 5% discount, 5,000 units will receive a 10% discount, and 10,000 units will receive a 30% discount on the original price."

He also went to great lengths to explain how the discount was calculated.

Those sent by the Vatican to be missionaries had to study astronomy and geography.

The foreigners had a hard time processing the news they had just heard.

Some people are wondering: "What are the prices of these perfumes?"

Upon hearing Marco Berardi's Chinese translation, the shop assistant quickly took out several egg-sized, exquisitely carved agate bottles and a string of brightly colored, beautifully embroidered sachets from the tray to show to everyone.

"Bottled perfume is priced at 150 taels of silver wholesale per bottle! Sachets with mosquito-repellent and sleep-inducing effects are priced at 5 taels of silver wholesale each, with a shelf life of three months."

Marco Berardi translated this as is.

The foreigners exclaimed, "My God!"

They finally encountered merchants who were even more greedy than themselves!

They dare to ask for 150 taels of silver for a bottle of perfume that's not even as big as their fists?

Even the most exquisitely carved agate wouldn't cost more than ten taels of silver, right?
In their eyes, such a precious item as fragrant dew should be placed in a transparent glass container to highlight its value.

Counting on my fingers, the minimum is no less than a thousand bottles, which would cost 150,000 taels of silver!
Add to that the franchise fee, and it's quite a substantial expense.

They all looked hesitant, their earlier enthusiasm gone.

Marco Berardi:
"The manager of Kansai Trading Company said that as long as they obtain overseas agency status, they will receive two of these unbreakable, transparent spray bottles as a gift."

The foreigners were completely bewildered:
"Ah! This nice bottle isn't for sale, it's just given away for free?"

"Well, it's not like we can't try to get that distributorship!"

"Master Steward, I, Marcoli, would like to use 50,000 taels of silver each to acquire the five-year overseas agency rights for Rose No. 1 Ladies' Perfume and Woody No. 5 Men's Perfume."

Ten thousand taels of silver, it hurts my heart to death.

However, the fact that four transparent bottles can be squeezed to turn the perfume into a spray is quite worthy of study.

The bidding has already started?
Most people were caught off guard.

After realizing what was happening, other people followed suit. "Five years, 51,000 taels! I want number one, number three, and number seven!"

"Don't argue with me, I'll buy the ten-year agency rights for 100,000. I want the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th."

"."

Even if the manager and his staff couldn't understand these gibberish words, they could still sense the intensity of the bidding from each other's excited expressions.

The general set a huge trap for these foreigners, and they were really willing to jump in.

They were all so happy that their faces were covered in teeth.

Unfortunately, they couldn't speak Latin and couldn't participate in the bidding process themselves, leaving Marco Bella, who was hosting the auction for the first time, so busy that his mind could barely keep up with his mouth.

Such chaotic bidding is really not the right thing to do.

Finally, he decided to let these people start the bidding from the No. 1 perfume.
Only when the bidding atmosphere became heated did Gan Minglan finally breathe a sigh of relief and quietly leave from the back with Lu Ye and the others.

As Lu Ye walked along, he shook his head and sighed:

"Master, foreigners are really richer than we thought! How did they accumulate their wealth?"

"You wouldn't know this, would you? Many of them have titles in their own countries, and some of them like to go out to sea to explore. Whenever they arrive at a new continent, they send people to investigate the strength of that new continent."

Wherever the New World was rich in resources but lacked fighting strength, they transformed from merchants into bandits. If they encountered something good, why bother buying it? They'd just rob it! If they encountered a tough opponent they couldn't defeat, they'd behave themselves and do business fairly!

Gan Minglan said this.

Hearing this, Lu Ye and the others hardened their fists: "Then what's the difference between them and the Tatars and the Hu people?"

"Essentially, there's no difference; this is a world where the strong prey on the weak! Marco Bella said that European navigators have already mounted cannons on their ships! Perhaps in the future, they will come storming in from the sea."

The guards were shocked by the news.

So, their enemies weren't just Tatars, Hu people, and Russians; there were also many foreigners thousands of miles away!
The boys immediately tensed up.

"Master, should we kill all these foreigners, or drive them out of Bagua City?"

"What's there to be afraid of? As long as we guard all the passes, it will be incredibly difficult for them to enter the country. Besides, they can't carry that much baggage from the land. If they come by sea, the first to be affected will be the Southern Yue Kingdom. All we can do now is be prepared at all times!"

Be prepared at any time to reclaim lost territory.

We are also always ready to fight against foreign enemies.

And all of these are inseparable from firearms.

The guards looked at their master with even more admiration.

When it comes to foresight, the master is the only one!
The civil officials in the imperial court are probably still basking in the joy of receiving huge amounts of customs duties.

Lu Ye and the others were right.

Meanwhile, the head of the tax office stationed in Ili asked Xiao Jin to send the customs duty stub back to the palace.

The next day, several imperial envoys from the Ministry of Revenue left the capital by express courier.

When they left, they each took with them a savings passbook from a major bank.

With these passbooks, money can be withdrawn on the spot.

It's no wonder the imperial envoys were so impatient.

The lower reaches of the Zhuohe River experience annual floods and dike breaches.

What could the imperial court do?
It's about disaster relief!
The imperial envoys were instructed to carry bankbooks and, if they encountered a region with a bountiful harvest along the way, withdraw money from the local branch to purchase grain.

This not only shortens the journey, but also allows for the tracking of disaster relief funds through bank accounts.