CH 400

A Merchant’s Respect

“And once he establishes a monopoly, which means he’s the only one selling the product in question,” Ludwig continued, “he’s free to set the price however he wants. After all, you can’t buy it anywhere else. He can make it as expensive as he wants.”

“Oh, I see!” In a moment of understanding, Bel put her hands together. Ludwig had done a good job of explaining. Still, he looked at Mia to make sure.

“Mmm.” When he saw her nodding happily and nibbling on a sweet, Ludwig let out a sigh of relief. He thought she was happy with his performance.

I see. She thought that Miss Bel could learn something from this situation and wanted to take advantage of it. In her message to him asking him to come, she said, “Please Bel in her studying.” She probably wanted Bel to learn how to deal with traders.

Ludwig kept talking about what he meant. “In this case, though, I think the goal is not to get a monopoly on the market but to fight your company directly. Also, if I had to guess, the method being used is to take over Forkroad & Co.’s market by severely lowering their prices. Do you agree?”

Marco sagged a little and shook his head to show that he was giving up.

“I see that I can’t keep anything from you. But what gave you that idea? Was it really that clear?”

Ludwig smirked. “My apologies. I might have put on a little bit of a show. In fact, there is something I know that helped me figure out what to do.”

He turned to Mia. “Shalloak Cornrogue contacted me and asked me to end our business relationship with Forkroad and sign a new contract with his company,” he said. He then took a letter out of his pocket and gave it to her.

“The details are written here, but in short, he’s offering to ship wheat in bigger amounts and for less money than Forkroad.”

In other words, Shalloak was making it clear that he didn’t dislike the empire, but rather Forkroad. The terms he was offering were also pretty good—good enough to make getting out of Forkroad’s deal a real option. That was cause enough to be careful. Ludwig thought that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Also, the main point of this deal is to get us to break our promise to Forkroad. Chances are, Her Highness won’t agree to do something as betrayal.

That’s why Ludwig liked the offer so much. It was a very clever plan. By selling all of Forkroad’s products for much less than they were worth, even if it meant losing a lot of money, Shalloak had essentially killed the company’s business. Right now, Forkroad couldn’t sell anything except wheat. In particular, the wheat that was meant to be sent straight to Tearmoon. Could Forkroad resist the urge to touch the wheat that was going to the empire when profits were going down and demand was high? If the company can sell the wheat to other buyers for more than what was agreed upon in the deal, it might still be able to stay in business. All that would be needed is some lying. If Forkroad gave in to desire and broke their promise, they would be the first ones to do so, which would give the empire a good reason to end their contract.

Luckily, Sir Marco has kept his word. The deal hasn’t been broken, so Her Highness can thank him for his loyalty in good faith. Ludwig told him what was in Shalloak’s letter because he knew Marco was loyal to them.

“Interesting… Hm, Cornrogue?”, Mia asked herself as she read the letter. “Well, I do wonder…”

Marco jumped up in a panic when he saw Mia’s pursed lips as she was thinking.

“Y-Your Highness, that’s—”

“Please, Sir Marco,” she said gently, motioning for him to sit back down. “Relax. I won’t sell out my book friend for money. The only problem is that this Shalloak guy… Isn’t his last name Cornrogue?”

Her voice made him think, so he asked, “Have you heard of him before, Your Highness?”

Mia’s gaze grew faraway. “I… most definitely have. I don’t forget him at all. The King of the Merchants, Cornrogue. I thought he wouldn’t show up for a while longer… So he’s going to come to me, right? Oho ho!”

She smiled like a child who was planning a joke. “Oh, and on that note, Ludwig, the Forkroads are being harassed right now. Is there anything we can do to help? Have the empire buy up all the things they have in stock, for example.”

Shalloak Cornrogue wasn’t really trying to fight with the empire. He was really just competing with Forkroad & Co. over prices. The only thing the empire could do to help was buy Forkroad’s dead stock.

“Good question. Let me think…” said Ludwig. His mind was racing as he tried to figure out the right answer. He wasn’t trying to figure out if a buyout was a good idea, but rather what Mia meant by asking this question. As if to tease him, she went on. “Or would it be wasteful to buy left-over things from a company just because the owner is the father of my friend? Will I get in trouble if I pay more for something when it can be bought cheaper somewhere else?”

She took a quick look at Ludwig. He knew he was right because of the way she looked at him. I was right—Her Highness has already decided what to do. These questions are all about what one should do. She’s just going through the motions to teach Miss Bel right now.

He gave her a knowing nod and said, “I don’t see a problem with that. Even if the more expensive thing can be found elsewhere for less money, if the price is fair, buying it would not be a waste of money.”

“Really? Ludwig-sensei, why is that? Could you tell me? Please?”

With begging eyes, Bel looked up at him. As expected, that got Bel’s attention. He was happy to see that she was interested, so he smiled and said, “Of course I will. You don’t have to beg. Let me see… How do I describe this? Hm… I think it’s wrong to think that everything is better when it’s cheaper. This is because money is what you get in exchange for your work. In other words, it shows the value of labor.”

“What is the value of labor?” Bel parroted.

Ludwig nodded deeply. “Everything a seller sells is the result of someone’s work. Farms are where crops come from. Crafts made by craftspeople. From cooks, food. All of them are the result of work. Putting a price on a product, then, is the same as putting a value on the work that went into making it.”

As the topic got more complicated, Bel’s brows furrowed. It was clear that she wasn’t getting the logic, but it was also clear that she was still trying. Ludwig couldn’t help but smile when he saw how hard she was thinking by the way her face was scrunched up.

“This means that merchants must price their goods in a way that reflects the work that went into making them. From my point of view, selling things too cheaply devalues labor and, by extension, insults the work of those who made them.”

Ludwig’s smile grew wry as he tried to make his point. He thought back to how his own father had taught him the same thing. Merchants can’t cut their prices more than they can handle. Doing this just to compete with another seller is a terrible thing for the people who make the goods…

It’s just as he said. It made him realize again that what his father had said was true. He turned to Bel, who was clearly thinking. “This kind of behavior hurts more than just your mind. There is also harm to the body. For instance, let’s say a seller sold cookies that cost two silver to make but only brought in one silver. He would lose one silver, but if it helped him get more people, it might be worth it. But if he keeps doing this, what do you think other retailers will think? He would take business away from them. Would they also drop the price to a coin to get them to draw them back?”

Bel, with her face scrunched up in concentration, listened carefully and answered honestly, “Yes, I think they would.”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it? But in reality, it’s likely that no one else would buy at a loss. Still, they would try to get the price down. How? By making the people who made it work harder. The traders would go to their cookie supplier and say that the cookies won’t sell for two silvers, so they need to be made cheap enough to sell for one silver. So that they could compete with the first merchant, the other merchants tried to make craftsmen’s work less valuable.”

“I see… Does that mean that people who ask craftsmen to do things that aren’t fair are bad?”

“That’s definitely true, but I think careless customers who buy cheap things without thinking about the price are also to blame. The frustrating part, and what makes this a very hard situation, is that workers also prefer cheaper things. They get paid for the work they do, and then they use that money to buy things, which makes them buyers. By looking for cheap products, they end up making their own work less valuable.”

Ludwig paused to let his answer sink in. After that, he went on.

“That’s why, in my view, a seller whose prices are fair is more trustworthy than one whose prices are too low. Merchants lower prices because customers think cheap things are worth more, but you shouldn’t always go for the cheapest option. Customers should realize that this world isn’t set up so that they can put a high value on their own work while putting a low value on everyone else’s.”

Finally, he turned to Mia and said, “Therefore, I think it’s okay to go ahead with the purchase you’re talking about, as long as it doesn’t include useless luxury items or goods that are too expensive. It will also help keep the flow of money.”

After nodding in agreement with Ludwig’s impromptu theory on market dynamics, Mia turned to look at Marco Forkroad.

“Well, there it is, Sir Marco. We will buy your leftover stock at the right price for the market. If the empire has trouble coming up with the money, hm… So, I’ll just ask a few of my friends to help me. You don’t have to cut the prices too much just because they are leftovers. Let’s deal with each other with trust and respect.”

She smiled after saying that.