Chapter 216 - Business Plans (2/2)

“I only did my duty.” Patrick nodded reservedly. “I was always in charge of communicating with the chamber of commerce in the territory and giving advice to the feudal lord in this aspect. I’m ashamed to say, although I am skilled in knowledge regarding heraldry, grammar, and etiquette, I invested more effort in money. This… is probably quite disgraceful.”

“It is truly disgraceful only when you’re skilled in dealing with money but don’t dare to admit it.” Gawain smiled. “I got you here today to talk about money matters. I think you already know about this?”

“Ah, yes. I saw your letter. Your territory has entered the stage of having surplus production. Therefore, you wanted to reach trade routes through us?” Patrick nodded. “It is alchemy potions, am I right?”

“That’s right, alchemy potions. But I’ve got to state in advance, the alchemy potions produced and sold by the Cecil territory are probably quite different from what you imagine them to be. I have a brand new trade model, and I need you to help me organize and realize it.”

“‘Brand new trade model’?” Patrick frowned, he didn’t know what Gawain meant. “Are you referring to your commission as a feudal lord?”

“It’s too troublesome to talk about it. It would be better if you read the materials directly,” Gawain said while gesturing for Heidi who followed beside him to hand a fairly thick booklet to Patrick. “This will tell you what the ‘new trade model’ is.”

Patrick took the booklet. However, although he was rather in awe of Gawain, he was quite conceited when it was regarding the field that he was skilled in. He reflected that having dealt with merchants for half his lifetime, he was extremely familiar with the skillset of laying trade routes, transactions, marketing, and storage. Even the most novel trade model wouldn’t be too complicated in his eyes; specially using a booklet to explain it was really making a mountain out of a molehill —— yet he didn’t dare to proclaim it and could only bow respectfully.

“Alright, I will read it now, Lord Duke. You can fully rest assured. I am still quite confident in the business aspects,” he said while catching sight of some keywords on the booklet: chain operations, regional agent, distribution network, split model, and market expansion…

Gawain did not utter a sound; he only quietly watched as Patrick swiftly finished reading that booklet that wasn’t very thick.

Patrick used a few minutes to hastily skim through the first time and then used three times longer to read it the second time.

As he prepared to read the third time, Gawain interrupted him. “Mr. Patrick, what thoughts do you have?”

Patrick rubbed his eyes and looked blankly at Gawain, as if he’d forgotten for a moment that he was in the parlor of the Duke’s residence. His whole mind was filled with those inconceivable terms and specific operational plans. When he realized that it was Duke Gawain calling out to him, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. “Yes… yes, Duke! I’ve finished reading, I’ve finished reading!”

“I know you’ve finished reading. I want to know your thoughts.”

“Um… This…” Patrick bowed his head and glanced at the booklet in his hands but suddenly found that he had lost all usable vocabulary. “These ideas are indeed things that I’ve never thought of. They appear to be strange and eccentric… yet also seem feasible? But…”

Mr. Plump repeated his “but” for a long while before he finally inhaled a deep breath. “Alright, I admit it has no problem logically. If it is achieved, then it would swiftly grow to become the business monster of the southern borders —— no independent itinerant merchants, tradesmen, or even district chamber of commerce would be able to counter such a group of merchants that are tightly organized, circulate effectively, move together, and even have a big aristocrat backing them up. But I also want to give an honest comment. These concepts are almost impossible to realize. You demand that everyone under this sale system be under a unified management. The shops at the lowest rungs will be directed by the regional agents, and the regional agents will be directed by the general manager that you appoint. However, there have never been any merchants who’d accepted such constraints. —— Of course, we can rely on monetary interests and contracts to narrowly achieve this, but you also ask that the stores at the lowest rungs get business from civilians, this…”

Patrick spread his hands open. “Alchemy potions aren’t stinky ointments that some village herbalists concocted. Even mercenaries who are slightly poorer may not be able to afford them. How could civilians afford to use them? Even if we were to sell them to civilians, none of them would buy them!”

“You don’t have to worry about this. Since I’ve said that the new alchemy potions can be sold to civilians, I have naturally taken the price into consideration. I can guarantee that they’ll be so cheap that the average civilian will be able to afford them with a grit of their teeth. The local aristocrats can also get such potions for their armies.”

Gawain did not want to exaggerate. He did not promise “alchemy potions that even serfs could afford” —— because this was unrealistic. Not every territory was like the Cecil territory. In most places in this world, the personal assets of serfs were almost zero. Regardless of how cheap Gawain made the alchemy potions, the serfs still wouldn’t be able to afford even a bottle cap. In this aspect, Gawain was currently still powerless.

That he could allow middle-income civilians (or residents) in the other territories to be able to afford alchemy potions was already his biggest goal at present.

With regard to Gawain’s words, Patrick’s first reaction was still to view this plan as impossible. However, when he saw the unwavering expression on the other party’s face, he sensibly kept the thought to himself. Instead, he purely assessed the trade model in the booklet. “Alright, then I want to say, the contents in this are filled with intelligence. —— If what you were selling wasn’t alchemy potions, but grains and cloth, my assessment of it would have been higher. But I have one final question… Do you have this many alchemy potions?”

This “business scholar” spread his hands. “To feed such a sale system, the amount of alchemy potions needed isn’t a small number.”

Gawain smiled and waved a hand at the two servants that’d followed. “Go move those few boxes of samples in here.”

“Few… few boxes?”