After receiving Viscount Roster’s orders, the Golden rchant Guild sprang into action.
Any area where land prices had dropped to about 30% of the original—no need to ask, just buy.
Countless amounts of real gold and silver started flowing from Viscount Roster through Dragon Bank into the hands of Golden rchant Guild agents, ultimately transforming into land deeds that were taken away by delivery personnel and sent to Golden rchant Guild directly-operated stores.
Many people didn’t understand the Golden rchant Guild’s behavior. Land prices had already crashed this badly—why keep buying?!
In the heartland of the Gray Fort Empire.
In the castle of the Erson family—the world’s largest landowner and grain supplier.
The Erson family patriarch sat in a chair by the fireplace, silent.
As if contemplating sothing.
Back when he’d first seen the enormous yield of Golden Spike Grain, he’d imdiately chosen to dump large quantities of his family’s grain.
Their family controlled nurous sales channels, and many rchants waited near their estate for them to release grain.
So their losses weren’t actually that big.
Countless amounts of grain were sold by them. Although the prices were a bit low, it was still acceptable.
But the rchants who took it off their hands—they were the unlucky ones.
In just one day, they watched grain prices drop by half.
Their assets started rapidly shrinking. Now they were worth less than 20% of the original, and there seed to be a downward trend...
Of course, the Erson family patriarch wasn’t particularly concerned about this. What did their life or death have to do with the Erson family?
If grain prices rose back up, they’d still be the world’s largest landowners, still have countless rchants revolving around them.
If grain prices could never recover, their family could still plant other things and still have countless rchants revolving around them.
So what if they screwed over this batch of people?
As long as the land was still in their hands, there was nothing to worry about.
But... holding land also required capital!
Unless they left the land barren, these hundreds of thousands of serfs needed them to be responsible to the end.
Facing the completely new situation about to appear, the Erson family patriarch was genuinely panicking a bit.
Through countless ages, the Erson family had always maintained a life without any changes whatsoever.
Tides rose and fell, royal power changed hands, but no matter who it was, for the stability of the realm, to be able to purchase enough grain from their family, they’d choose to make them the most powerful nobles.
But all of this seed to be breaking down.
The Erson family patriarch didn’t know how he should face the current situation.
He actually wasn’t cold at all. He just felt that in this castle, extinguishing all the lights and facing this blazing fireplace would bring him so sense of security, let him calm down as much as possible to think.
Just then, the sound of high heels ca approaching.
His son ran in from outside.
In traditional noble families like theirs, everyone wore high heels—it was also a way to highlight status.
"Father, a senior agent from the Golden rchant Guild has co, asking if our family has any intention to sell land. Apparently, the guild plans to purchase large amounts of land for workshop construction."
"Workshops?" The Erson family patriarch raised an eyebrow, his sowhat aged voice erging.
"Yes, workshops. The president of the Golden rchant Guild, that great dwarf elf, said the Golden rchant Guild needs to follow the trend. As transportation becos increasingly convenient, the Golden rchant Guild will be able to sell even more products in the future."
"Each region has its own specialties. Perhaps just with so processing, they could beco excellent goods."
"Now that land prices are relatively cheap, it’s the perfect ti to purchase land and prepare for the future."
The Erson family patriarch opened his sowhat cloudy eyes, looked at the flas before him, and fell into thought.
He was thinking about how much of these words were true, how much were false.
"Father, our family has too much land. Selling a portion to the guild might be a good choice."
The Erson family heir, seeing his father remain silent for so long, finally couldn’t help but speak:
"I’ve heard that Roster Territory Group Company is now partnering with Southern Developnt Company to produce so processed foods. If workshops for processed foods could also appear around our territory, perhaps that would be a good thing for us."
"We have large amounts of land—why can’t we directly copy Southern Developnt Company?"
"We can also use surplus grain to raise livestock and poultry to provide at. We can also brew alcohol, we can also process it into various processed foods..."
"Yes, all of this doesn’t match our family’s previous philosophy. The risk is definitely higher. But isn’t that what this world is like?"
"The era has already changed. Rather than betting everything on planting cotton on all our land, we might as well learn from Southern Developnt Company."
"If you feel the risk is really too great, we could simply package up the Erson family and go public. Who doesn’t know that the Erson family owns the most fertile land in this world, the most grain? As long as we’re willing to adapt to this new era, we can already find our position."
Adapt or perish—survival of the fittest wasn’t just true for nature, but for noble houses as well. The Erson family heir, this young mind, had many ideas different from his father’s.
For a mont, the room fell silent again.
After a long while, just when the young man finally couldn’t stand it anymore and wanted to continue speaking, the Erson family patriarch finally spoke.
"Since you want to make such big changes, then why would you still sell land to the Golden rchant Guild?"
"Can’t you establish these so-called processed food workshops yourself?"
"I can." The Erson family heir said, "But I’m not sure whether the Golden rchant Guild would be willing to purchase what we produce."
"If we sell land to the Golden rchant Guild and they establish such workshops, we can naturally sell grain to them, achieving a win-win."
"But if we establish them ourselves, the Golden rchant Guild is everywhere with countless channels to purchase goods—many of them their own. Would they still choose to cooperate with us?"
"With this new path, we don’t have enough connections, don’t know that many rchants, so..."
"But have you thought about this—if they want to establish workshops, they could directly purchase wasteland. Why would they purchase farmland?"
The Erson family patriarch’s aged voice erged, interrupting his heir:
"Land is the most abundant thing in this world. Currently, looking across the entire continent, perhaps only Roster territory lacks land. Everywhere else has plenty."
"Farmland and land are two different concepts. You need to think clearly—what exactly does the Golden rchant Guild want to do!"
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