I have miscalculated a bit. It takes a better part of two hours for all the people to wake up and find their way to the lounge and breakfast. Savory toasts are well received, though I tactfully avoid ntioning it was my idea. Cava is... less well received. In the end, only and Bridgit drink any. The rest either demur outright, like my father and Abe, or try a thimble and refuse anymore, citing the need to keep the heart within the ribcage. Silly people.
"So... We're currently approaching Berlinger from the west-south-west. You can see the city on the horizon already." - I announce - "I'm taking it slow to avoid creating a panic in the city. If absolutely needed, we can land within ten minutes, but as it is right now, we're going to drift over the plains outside the city, giving everyone plenty of ti to see the flags before we cross the wall line. So... make your preparations as needed in the expectation that there will be disembarkation in about an hour. Hiram, can you give your father a call to give him a heads up on this? Unofficially-like?"
Abe raises his brow at this suggestion. "What's wrong with making it official?" - he inquires.
"Ah, well... I would think that Kraut court would be dubious about our claims of crossing mountains overnight right until they see the airship with their own eyes." - I offer - "Hence, an unofficial warning from a family mber so that the court could scramble up so sort of welcoming ceremony without looking like they were lazy or doubtful of my word."
He nods - "Well reasoned, lady Gillespie. I was about to suggest the sa, and it gladdens to know you've been grasping the finer nuances of politics so readily."
Hiram nods at that and excuses himself to his cabin. I suppose unofficial warning should be made in privacy and all that. anwhile, the rest continue to help themselves to the remains of breakfast or checking over various papers once again. Well, except for Marceu. Who 'inconspicuously' moves little by little to end up next to . Now, what are you up to, little wretch?
"...Now why would you be so concerned with preserving Krauts their face, I wonder?" - he mutters softly - "One would think letting them embarrass themselves would give you leverage for better terms on that agreent, you know? Can't help but wonder why you'd go to such lengths to deny yourself an advantage."
"Don't be daft. This eting is about THEM wanting to buy stuff from us. If they are embarrassed, they will curtail the scope of their request out of pride. No one likes a condescending rchant." - I grumble at him - "Rember what king said yesterday? Honey before vinegar. It's a good business policy in general, just so you know."
"Isn't getting the best price for your wares the core tenet of every rchant?" - he needles. OK, he either tries to figure out how well I'm heeled on the rcantile front, or he's just stupid. Or thinks I am stupid, which is stupid in itself. I'm hoping it's first, Marceu in the ga was a right canny bastard.
"Best price for wares does not necessarily an best individual price on every single item." - I explain to him calmly - "Think about it. Suppose you have a chicken farm. It's a big farm, you have things well considered, you can reliably grow a dozen of chicken each week to sell. Now, if you consider the price of feed, the salary of workers, the maintenance costs and everything, it costs you, say... six sols to raise a chicken. Now, you take them to market. You don't have the ti or inclination to sell them yourselves, so you take them to a rchant who has the poultry stall so they'd buy it wholesale and resell. Obviously, the rchant will sell them for a higher price than what they buy from you for, they need to have their own profit. With so far?"
Marceu nods cautiously. He seems to be actually interested in the example, and I can see Mihel paying so attention out of the corner of my eye.
"Now, you have a choice in how to deal with the rchant. Primo, you can put your effort into maximizing item price, and get the rchant to pay you a gold for each chicken you sell. But he would only buy one chicken per week at that price. Secundo, you can offer your chicken at the bargain price of one ecu, but in that case rchant will buy your whole lot. In the first case, you get one gold at expense of six sols, leaving you with three ecu and six sols of pure profit. In the second case, you get twelve ecus at the expense of six ecus, leaving you with six ecus of pure profit. And in the first case you're also saddled with eleven chickens that just aren't good enough to sell for a gold. You'll need to sell them for less, and this rchant is already feeling shafted over having to fork a whole gold for one chicken, so they won't deal with you further, you'll have to seek more rchants. There's only so many rchants on the market who deal in poultry, and they talk to each other, as any colleagues would. If you get one of them annoyed at you, others will be wary of you and less likely to pay you a good price for your not so good chickens. That leaves you with the rivals of your first rchant. And trying to sell to both rivals in the sa ti? Yeah, well, if you are young and energetic and resilient, you might be able to put up with that hassle for a while. But it will get to be more trouble than it's worth sooner than later." - I continue spinning the tale - "So... with that in mind, what are your options for maximizing your profits and minimizing your losses? Assu you can not utilize more than two chicken per week at most, there's only so many tis you can have chicken soup before you get sick of it, so any chicken over two that you don't sell beco a loss of six sols - no one wants old hens."
He mulls over the problem for a bit. "I should be able to bargain for so happy dium." - he ventures then - "Two ecu per chicken, for example. Less than gold, more than just one ecu."
"Ok. You made a bargain, the rchant agrees to buy four chickens from you. Keep in mind that the rchant has a budget too, and will not be able to buy even the most excellent chickens if you charge too much. In this case, your profits are eight ecus, your expenses are two ecus, leaving you with six ecu profit and eight more chickens to deal with. This rchant won't buy more from you, he is already at his budget limits. Now what do? Stick with this, utilize as much of unsold chicken as you can stomach, and eat the three ecu loss, bringing you to three ecus of profit and being sick of chicken eventually? Look for another rchant to sell off the rest at a lower price?" - I suggest to him.
"MMm, yes, I should first bargain with one who provides foods for high nobles and the royal court, sell the best chickens for the best price to him. Then sell the rest of chickens to rchants who peddle to commoners at bargain prices." - he concludes with a smile.
"Very good. Incorrect, but good." - I praise him. He jerks up, blinking at .
"What do you an, incorrect?" - Marceu demands hotly - "This is the best arrangent for getting the most profit out of this!"
"Yes and no. See, Marceu, your problem is that you think as a rchant about this. You assu that dozen chicken a week is a constant that can not and will not be changed, and try to run math from that point. You need to account for the fact that supply is not a gods-given right. What if there's a drought and you can't buy enough feed to maintain your dozen a day pace? What if there's a bountiful harvest and there's so much chicken on the market that you have to lower the prices to get the rchants to buy at all?" - I suggest.
His face creases. "OK, I understand the problem with drought. The natural consequence would be to raise the prices than to recoup the costs of feed. Sa with harvest - if feed costs less, then naturally chicken price should also drop, unless I want soone else to undercut my bargain." - he admits - "How does this make my assessnt incorrect, though? I agree that you can not set the price once and hold to it through sumr and winter - it needs to reflect the current conditions, but the basics should remain the sa. Sell the premium wares to high-roll rchants, sell the bargain wares to low-ball rchants."
I chuckle. "Simple enough." - I tell him - "An application of ingenuity and investnt can alter the supply by your whim. Imagine for a mont that you have devised a sche that would allow you to raise much more chicken at your farm. You might have to cut so corners there, your chicken will be a bit fattier than what the market usually sells. But instead of dozen per week, you now throughput a gross per week, while keeping your expenses to maybe twice over what you paid for dozen per week the old way. Now you can afford to offer bulk chicken sales at, say, eight sols apiece, if the rchant you're dealing with agrees to buy two dozens from you at once. They go for it, because while it's a bit of an upfront investnt over the budget, any rchant worth their salt has a reserve just for good bargains like this one, and once they sell the first bulk, they'd be able to consistently afford replacent shipnts from you from all those profits. Now you are undercutting everyone on the market, because your throughput is much higher than theirs. Mass production. In the end, old way farrs all either sign up to work at your farm or buy a license from you for your thod, and continue flooding the market with cheap chicken, or concentrate exclusively on raising superb chickens solely for high-roll rchants. Whereas you are controlling a good chunk of the low-ball market. Your profits are now through the roof, and you are essentially beyond competition unless competitor also uses your new thod or improves upon it."
His face slowly elongates and pales as he considers the suggestion. "This is..." - he trails off, thinking - "...I can't decide whether that would earn you Kinov's blessing or smiting. You DO realize that sharply increasing supply like this would flip the market over, right? Every rchant will want to buy from you, and every farr would want to work for you or kill you for ruining their livelihood."
"Indeed. Now, imagine you are smart enough to foresee this, and just as the market starts to tip, you start offering bails, buyouts and licenses to your competitors? Those who want can join the corporation, or receive a license for production thods at a discount. Or just have their stock bought out at good enough prices to set them up for trying their luck in a different craft." - I imply.
"Hm. A country-wide authority on a singular product would be nice, so long as the house in charge could be counted on making the right decisions." - he hedges - "Late monsieur Konistan had attempted sothing similar with grain, and the results were... lukewarm."
"That's because he was a rank idiot." - I tell him bluntly - "He insisted all farrs under his aegis produce exactly the sa sort of grain. Obviously, it created a shortage of other sorts and an overabundance of this one. Moreover, he insisted on dictating the prices at which the grain would be bought from farrs, and his prices were just a denier short of blatant robbery. Visit Grenwille soti later, you'll find the situation had changed a lot under my managent."
"...What do you an, your managent?" - he inquires slowly.
"Huh, you don't know? I bought out Konistan's business wholesale. He was on his way to rsaille to retire with a quite generous paynt I offered him for everything he owns as a rchant, when he was slain by a brigand in a robbery gone tragically wrong. Everything he had and the stuff I started on my own or bought out is currently folded under the Northern Trading Incorporated." - I tell him, and he gapes like a fish. I see Mihel copying his expression over yonder.
"YOU own that!?" - Marceu yelps, pawing at the chair's armrests - "...Just... you... ugh!"
Now's my turn to be puzzled. Why is he acting like this is news? I did submit everything to rchant Guild, Mihel should have been aware of this.
"Ok. What is going on?" - I demand of both of them, turning to include Mihel into my line of sight - "I know for a fact that I have submitted the papers to the rchant Guild in the most expeditious matter, my registration should by now be a matter of public record. Why are you acting like it's complete news to you?"
"...many apologies, but... I was just flabbergasted you'd marry Konistan for that. That man was vile, no matter how much he'd pretend to be a respectable rchant." - Marceu tells with a grimace.
"What do YOU an, married." - I demand - "I BOUGHT the whole trading house from him, cash up front. No marriage of any sort was discussed, considered, agreed upon or enacted."
He exchanges a helpless glance with his father. Mihel stands up with a sigh, and ambles to his cabin, coming back shortly thereafter with a thick ledger.
"This is one of the guild registry copies." - he explains, as he cracks it open - "It contains a summary of every official registration or interaction that was conducted through the guild." His finger traces the dates back, until he points out one entry.
"Northern Trading Incorporated, reregistration. 'Due to change of owner and overhaul, a na change was requested and granted. The old na "Konistan trading house", the new na "Northern Trading Incorporated". Registrar - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX mada Konistan."
He frowns, as he scratches at a large blotch after "registrar". "This is odd." - he mutters - "The na should have been written in full, not just the last na. And that blotch..." He continues leafing the registry backward, pointing out several more similar blotches followed by "mada Konistan". How interesting.
"Go further back. There should be a registration for a shop "Sweet Dream"." - I request - "Let's see if there was anything hinky with it."
He continues turning pages, and sure enough, there is yet another blotch followed by "mada Konistan".
"How very... interesting." - I drawl, as I consider the situation - "I'll be honest, it does not look well for the guild. Let's hope it was a case of grifter fooling whoever is responsible for filing this, not a case of willful cooperation."
Mihel turns a jaundiced eye towards - "That's a serious accusation."
I nod - "Quite. See, "Sweet Dream" was also registered as a cause for issuing my mbership in the guild, and there is no ntion of any transaction regarding this shop henceforth. So, either my personal entry in the guild mbership had been also changed to "mada Konistan", in which case I will very literally eat the clerks of your guild with bean dip and red wine, or there exists an... inconsistency."
It takes little ti for Mihel to verify this much. "Gods damn it." - he grumbles, as he sees the pristine registration that DOES bear 'Opening of "Sweet Dream" shop' in the notes explaining the issuance of privileged rank without prior mbership - "Lady Gillespie, it seems that the rchant Guild has done you wrong. You have my personal word that as soon as we return, whoever made the alterations will be surrendered into your custody."
"Fair enough." - I agree - "We shall confer upon the results of interrogation to decide what to do from that point on. Was it an attack against specifically, or just a part of so bigger effort to defraud the guild mbers? Is there any other registry entry regarding this mada Konistan?"
"Lady Gillespie, as much as the guild had done you wrong, we can not surrender information about other mbers." - he objects.
"I'm not asking to know what the interactions were, I'm asking you to check if there is anyone else or not." - I tell him, and after a brief stare-off, he breaks down and opens the registry again, scanning through it.
"...No, it does not seem so. I believe whoever that is, they are targeting you personally." - Mihel finally offers, shutting the book.
"Very well. I will deal with it once we get back." - I conclude - "But for now... Berlinger awaits."
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