Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Translator: Effe

Editor: Yonnee

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[ Wouldn’t nobles and rich people who are willing to pay a lot of money look for the finest items handmade by artisans? ]

[ That’s right, but the quality of this isn’t bad either. Patterned textiles are inherently expensive. There’s no reason to lower the price here. ]

The quality was uniform and the quantity was abundant. With only a fraction of the price of production, they could dominate the market for similar mid-range patterned textiles.

But Claire laughed.

[ The money that can be made by dominating the existing market will not be more than creating a new market. ]

[ You mean…? ]

[ If the price is affordable, commoners will also dress and make curtains with patterned textiles. I’m thinking of creating a market for patterned textiles targeting them. ]

Claire calmly answered.

[ We will keep ordering the machines. Within this year, we will add about 300 sets of weaving machines alone. We are constructing a building that can accommodate 100 weaving machines, and the contract has already been signed. ]

The scale was not something that Roger could have imagined. It was no exaggeration to say that it would be a large-scale industrial complex in this era.

Roger prided himself on being bold, but he didn’t have the courage to dump that much money all at once into an uncertain market, much less creating a new market from the ground up.

[ What do you plan to do about the artisans? You wouldn’t be able to bring enough numbers to run the loom all at once, let alone the wages would be exorbitant. ]

[ It’s fine. My loom requires no skilled workers. Even if you’ve only ever turned a loom at home, you can handle it. ]

Claire said calmly.

[ We have also secured artisans to make pattern samples. The rest of the Weaving Guild’s skilled workers will have spent enough time to make top-of-the-line products. ]

Southern Arren, where the Delford estate was located, was originally a production center for cotton. While coming here, Roger had already seen endless stretches of cotton fields.

Besides, there was a town quite famous for its spinning industry nearby.

Then, Claire smiled.

[ I put a lot of effort into persuading them to plant cotton on the surrounding estates. Even if it fails, I have to buy it unconditionally, so in fact, all the debt will be incurred by me alone. ]

[ There is a railway station here. Did you think about it when you made it? ]

[ Well. They chose the site for the railway station before I was even ten years old. There must have been a plan to commercialize the area or whatnot. Even so, there would be no way of stopping the area’s development around the station. ]

Roger understood Claire’s last sentence as this.

‘Money flows with traffic. Did she realize before she was 10 years old that she had to secure the influence of railway transportation?’

He knew from the start that Claire’s insight about money and the market was overwhelming, but truly, it was amazing.

At that level, he would pour all of the Delford family’s fortune into it.

In any case, business has been on the rise ever since.

At first, they started targeting the urban residents of the rather affluent capital city, but the number of customers quickly increased.

Commoners wore plain, tough fabrics for everyday wear, but they wanted fancy fabrics with patterns for special occasions.

In the past, pattern textiles were a luxury that could only be used for wedding dresses. However, since they began to launch patterned textiles on the Weaving Guild, they often saw people going to church wearing jackets or dresses made with patterned textiles on Sundays.

Claire also made both the relatively modest ones and more ornate ones. Textiles woven with similar but different textures of white thread can be felt even though the patterns are not noticeable, and there were people among the rich and nobles who wore them as shirts.

The colorful ones were used as shawls or scarves. Some were also thinly woven and became a tapestry to decorate the house.

A tapestry in a commoner’s house. It was something beyond imagination before.

[ It’s thin, so it’s not suitable for cold weather, but anyone would want it to decorate the house simply. ]

Claire said so.

As she said, demand was unlimited. For the first two years, Roger had to reinvest most of his profits. And from the following year, the return of investment was more than plentiful.

The Weaving Guild continued to open direct stores at the same time as supplying goods to small textile stores. And through direct stores, new ways of using patterned textiles were presented.

Both wholesale and retail were blazingly successful. In addition to that, Clare also entered the high-end textile market by taking in artisans from existing trades at the Weaving Guild.

Roger didn’t even have time to sleep.

Of course, there were those who copied the weaving machine. However, their supply method was always to follow the Weaving guild.

[ Let’s take away the weaver. Anyway, if they want to match this price, they must be practicing some kind of ridiculous exploitation. ]

[ I can’t respond like that forever. In order to make a profit, we still have to lower the wages of the weavers. ]

[ The reason we can’t increase the number of factories right now is because we don’t have enough people. You would have to buy beautiful things anyway, even if they cost a little bit more. Success comes directly from the artisans. ]

Claire invested as much in the artisans and painters as she did in the machinery.

And since last year, she bought a new textile factory with huge financial power.

So, four years after joining hands with Claire, the Weaving Guild had almost monopolized the patterned textile market.

Roger couldn’t let go of Claire.

Claire smiled.

“You just have to work well, so there’s no need to flatter me. How much have you invested so far? Even if you try to quit the partnership, you will just lose market power.”

“Oh, you are misunderstanding. I’m not flattering you. I like you, Baron, and that’s because of your excellent insight and knowledge.”

“That is flattery.”

Claire laughed. She knew what Roger thought of her, but it’s truly not insight or knowledge.

She just had the sense to take those steps because she came from a crazy capitalist world.

Roger asked.

“By the way, are you really going to marry Mister Sherwood?”

“Yes.”

“You’re better off with me, if all you need is a commoner husband anyway.”

Claire stopped him. And she looked up at Roger.

Roger took a deep breath. Her pupils were mostly an idle amber color, but sometimes they looked like the piercingly intense sunlight.

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