OBS Chapter 231 Business Opportunities
Chapter 231 Business Opportunities
Despite having seen the luxurious life in the Holy City, John, who was wealthy and powerful, still chose to return to the territory after completing his goal. However, along the way, John was still thinking about the magnificent buildings in the Holy City and the wallets of the extravagant nobles.
After returning to the Earl's Castle, John carefully looked over the finances that were not making enough money, and immediately asked someone to notify Simon to come to him to discuss future financial plans.
After Simon received the news, he knew it was because of the economic downturn last year. He was thinking about how to solve this problem along the way. However, just as he entered the door and had not yet expressed his suggestions, John across from him suddenly asked:
"Simon, have you ever heard of the commercial trade of the French King's Hall?"
Although he didn't know what his master was thinking, Simon still answered truthfully:
"Sir, I know a little about the market environment of the Dharma King's Hall, but you also know that we only have one store in the Dharma King's Hall, Shengdu, and that store is only used to purchase goods. It is more like a temporary warehouse for storing goods than a store."
John continued to ask:
"Then if we enter the King's Hall with the current level of the Chamber of Commerce, what kind of trade do you think we should engage in to make a profit?"
However, Simon shook his head and said:
"Sir, the situation in the French King's Hall is different from that in Midland. Since its territory is far smaller than Midland's, it cannot accommodate too many chambers of commerce. As a result, the trade in everything from food and timber to luxury goods is now controlled by those large chambers of commerce and families, and ordinary chambers of commerce will not be given any benefits."
"Is that so?" After receiving Simon's denial, John asked unwillingly:
"Is there any trade that the Chamber of Commerce in the King's Hall doesn't do as well as we do, or is it that there is no Chamber of Commerce in the King's Hall that does this kind of trade?"
Simon immediately became energetic when he heard this, and said to John excitedly:
"Sir, we can do our old business of mercenary trade. There is basically no chamber of commerce doing this in the King's Hall."
However, after Simon finished speaking, John rejected his opinion:
"A country like the French King's Hall doesn't need mercenaries at all. The civilians there are relatively pious, and there are strict laws and various knight orders. I have never heard of any crime happening there."
"Moreover, the French King's Office implements parish management. You are the head of the parish assigned to you, and it is not a hereditary system. When you leave office, you just pack up and leave. You will not annex land through land sales or wars like other nobles. How can the mercenary industry develop under such an environment?"
Simon thought for a few minutes and then explained:
"Sir, although the mercenary industry was originally created to charge money for war, after these years of development, although most of them are still only engaged in war-related business, those smart mercenary leaders have begun to consider transforming or expanding the business of the mercenary group."
At this point Simon brought up an example that was familiar to John and said:
"Look at our Captain Charlie. Although for those civilians, Black Watch still only provides some services such as guarding and bodyguarding. But after Captain Charlie had the military band perform at the employers' banquets and received their praise, many people proposed to hire them to make their banquets more artistic."
"The French King's Hall itself has a strong artistic atmosphere. I stayed there for a few days and heard the names of many concert halls. I feel that our part-time workers are no match for the real professionals." Although John was impressed by Charlie's wit, he still expressed his concerns.
"That's true, but I know there is a type of team that basically no one except the royal family will build, and it is very suitable for the wealthy people in the French King's Hall?"
"what is that?"
"Guard of Honor."
"Guard of honor?" John asked after hearing this:
"What is the purpose of this kind of team other than serving as a facade for itself?"
"It is true that the honor guard is not as good as ordinary soldiers in fighting, and they do not have any professional skills to help themselves, but they have one biggest advantage, which is that they can bring face to their employers."
"The wealth of any one of the wealthy people living in the Hall of the King of Dharma is equal to the wealth of several top wealthy people in other countries combined. However, since the Hall of the King of Dharma is a religious country, these people cannot participate in higher-level politics. At most, they can only become city council members whose orders cannot be issued outside the Holy City."
"As the saying goes, the more wealth one has, the greater one's desire for spiritual needs. These people pursue their spiritual needs more than money, such as honor and vanity. If there is a ceremonial guard that can serve as their facade, their vanity will be satisfied, and they may even spend a lot of money to hire this team for a long time."
After listening to Simon's explanation, John felt that what he said made sense, so he found a pen and paper and ordered Simon to dispatch a well-trained team of a thousand men and a military band to return to the Earl's Castle.
While John was busy preparing for the new business, the Holy City far away in the French King's Hall was undercurrent. After Fidelic ordered to collect information about John's whereabouts, a large number of letters appeared on his desk, including the fact that Black Watch dispatched 20,000 people to raze Saint-Remy to the ground.
Looking at the words on the report, Fideli was so angry that he held the report tightly as if he would tear it into pieces at the next moment.
The reason why he was so angry was that Saint Remy was something he had painstakingly managed for many years. Basically, all the buildings, big and small, had his investment. During the plague, he had planned to withdraw the people inside and come back to run the business after the plague was over. However, he did not expect that it would be burned down by mercenaries, and all his previous investments were wasted.
"I knew it would be like this." Fidelicio thought to himself. In his opinion, it was obviously not something that Captain Charlie would do to mobilize so many mercenaries to do something that had no benefit. There must be John's order behind this, and John was probably doing this under the secret order of the King of France. The purpose was to let these secular dignitaries know that he knew the plans of his gang, but if anyone dared to disobey him, then no matter what he did, he was doomed to fail.
If he had heard such words before, Fidelicio might have used some tricks to make the King of France behave himself. But when he saw the ruins of Saint Remy which had been destroyed, he began to back off. After all, John's territory was not far from the King's Palace. Now it seemed that John was the King of France's lackey. If he made any small move, the King of France would surely order John to lead his troops south to kill him. By then, even if he had money, he would not be able to have a good ending.
Thinking of this, Fidelicio was amazed that the King of France had hidden himself so deeply. He usually pretended to be indifferent, but he had cultivated such a capable noble outside. At the same time, he hurriedly wrote letters to inform other dignitaries of the King of France's true thoughts and hoped that they could join forces to fight against the King of France who was pressing them step by step.