Chapter 39: Merchants’ Society

"Vicente, you have to change your current moves, kid. Do you think you can target all of our business?" A middle-aged man exclaimed against the boy across the table in the Fuller family warehouse.

On the outskirts of this former Jesse office, Vicente was sitting in an armchair, and Rory was standing next to him, both looking at the local merchant who had just arrived there demanding to speak to them.

Next to this man was a level 6 General, looking at them like an adult trying to scare a child who had messed up.

Vice smiled at the words of this old local merchant and said. "Mister Damian Cohen, you are mistaken. I am not trying to steal anyone's business.

In fact, I would like to get closer to local merchants. If you are willing, we can make a mutually beneficial partnership."

"Partnership?" That man made a confused expression. He was there to talk about this boy stealing his business, but Vice had suggested a partnership out of the blue...

Was this boy crazy, or was there something else behind it?

"Kid, don't think I won't act against your group because you are a child." He said.

"Hmm, but mister, what do you want me to do? I merely offered better prices to my suppliers and customers. It's not my fault if people I wasn't even doing business with found out about it and now want to approach me..." He said. "Or are you saying that they have an obligation to do business with you?"

"What? That's not what I'm saying!" This man raised his voice.

"Then what is it? If you are bothered by rumors from your suppliers, just lower your prices, and you won't lose any of your business."

"That's absurd! Are you telling me to lower my profits?" He felt outraged.

Vicente grinned. "That's how the market works. There are already groups imitating us, so even if I get out of this business, those charging abusive prices would still have to lower their prices to stay competitive with other groups."

"But this is your fault. You started this madness!"

"Hmm, so you can become my ally. You won't get the same returns you had before, but you can profit greatly from me." Vicente spoke, negotiating more support for his group.

He had been lowering some costs that groups like his typically had in trading the products of their suppliers. For example, normally, groups of merchants traveling with their products had to hire warriors to protect these resources.

The cost of mercenaries was not cheap, so to maintain his profits, a merchant like this angry man in front of Vicente had to promise lower prices to their suppliers and sell their products at higher values to consumers.

However, Vicente had firearms on his side and people willing to take their chances with these weapons!

With these, he no longer hired mercenaries and had been using his own people to protect his wagons.

Through this and other actions, he was able to offer better prices to his suppliers and customers without decreasing his profits too much!

'Vice was very clever.' Rory thought as he looked at his friend talking to that merchant. 'With the advent of guns, he was able to increase the prices we pay to our suppliers and thereby please these people.

Now the risk of Andrew's former suppliers leaving us has decreased significantly, and we can act with less worry of losing what we already had in the beginning.'

Vice continued to smile at that stressed man. "Mister, I will not tell you how I am improving prices for my customers and suppliers, but I assure you my profits are almost equal to what my father had in his time.

If you join me, I will guarantee you the same profits I have been making."

"How?" That man asked, still agitated at dealing with this bold child.

"I won't say. You would have to sign a Magical Agreement with me for me to tell you that."

"Tsk!" Damian looked away and then tried to control himself a little.

He couldn't just hit this child. That would be an embarrassment to him.

At the same time, merchants were not people who used violence at the first sign of disagreement. The opposite of this, people like him would try to talk and negotiate before drawing their weapons.

In this situation, Damian sighed and asked. "What would that be like? I don't understand what kind of partnership I could have with a boy like you."

Vice explained. "Very simple. Join my group. We will merge our merchant caravans."

Damian frowned his eyebrows. "Do you want me to subordinate myself to you?"

"No. I will be the leader of this group, but you will have almost as many freedoms as they have now. The big difference is that you will be part of a society with several merchants under my rule.

I will provide you with the methods to offer better prices to your customers and suppliers, and in return, you will give me a share of that business. Of course, you would also have to follow some rules."

Hearing this, such a man asked. "And why would other merchants join you? We can simply lower our prices and maintain our independence.

We'll have to give you something for it anyway, so we could simply give up some of our profits for our freedoms."

Vicente then said. "Yes, that is a possibility. But you should know not everyone will go along with it. And when I have more merchant groups on my side, I will naturally use my influence to put pressure on those who are not with us."

Vicente looked at that mercenary and said. "But if they are on our side, not only will they not have to worry about losing their suppliers and customers, but they won't have to hire mercenaries anymore.

I will provide protection, transportation, and more." He opened his arms, smiling confidently. "As our society grows, we can even achieve things we could not alone.

The influence of a group will always be greater than that of a single person."

There were societies like the one Vicente was planning to create in this place. However, associations and guilds in this model took away much more of the freedom of their members than this boy intended. eew updates t nvel/bi(.)com

For this reason, many preferred to stay away from such groups.

Yet, what Vicente was promising was indeed tempting.

"And why you?" That man did not disagree with this boy's words, but he still had a hard time accepting Vicente as a leader. "Why wouldn't we unite under the command of someone more capable?"

Vicente said at once, "Because only I have the ability to lead you. Besides being the only one with the method to lower your costs, I already have 37% of the suppliers in the area.

Besides me, counting you, there are six merchants who share the rest of the local suppliers. But none of you even comes close to my position.

You see, Mister Damian, I have prepared myself for this. Unlike you, I have been working to create this group for almost a year now.

None of you could replace me and take this group to the position I will take."

This man knew that most of this business was in the hands of Vicente's group and could not deny the advantage of the time this boy had been planning everything.

"Can you give me some time to think?"

"Of course. You have until the end of next month to think about it. After that, I will consider you have given up."

Chapter end