Book 4: Chapter 30: No longer being a noble
The hot summer had already mostly passed and it was already September.
In the past two years, it would have been the busiest time for the household magic machine companies and the smaller component companies because during this time, there was the highest demand for seasonal household magic machines.
But Banta City this year was different.
Just like a branch that could only hang in the burning summer sun, the companies in Banta City all were helpless when it came to making magic machines. They didn’t operate like before and there were many companies that had already stopped producing magic machines.
As for the reason? It was very simple, naturally they couldn’t earn money.
When the new City Lord Kamado announced the tax changes, collecting more taxes for magic machines, although the magic machine companies of Banta City suffered a large blow, they felt that they could still earn money like this. At worst, their profit margin would drop, but if they worked a bit more, they could make up for their losses.
But in the past few months, the brutal facts told everyone that with the current tax policy, it was almost impossible to earn money making magic machines. They might even owe money by producing them.
So after struggling for several months, the companies that had low profit margins could only stop to avoid increasing their losses.
WIth the first one, there would be a second one.
In just the two short months of summer, more than ten magic machine companies of Banta City stopped producing. At the same time, there were many companies that were producing less, being a step away from stopping production.
Among these companies, the only exception was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
The other companies all stopped production, but the Frestech Chamber of Commerce went beyond expectation. Not only did they not leave Banta City and move their Falling Rain Valley base to the Stantine Duchy, they even created more production lines in the Falling Rain Valley. They absorbed the workers from the companies that stopped producing and they went full force in their production.
Because of the new production lines and the skilled workers from the other companies, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce increased the output of the Magic Fan, the Magic Air Conditioner, the Magic Refrigerator, the Magic Freezer, and the other household magic machines that were scarce this summer.
And because there were less companies in Banta City competing with them, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s household magic machine sales increased during this summer.
With just the Magic Air Conditioners, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had sold two hundred thousand units in two months, doubling their sales numbers from last summer.
Then adding in the various other household magic machines, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had sold at least double the amount of household magic machines this year.
The other people were confused by why the Frestech Chamber of Commerce did this at first, but then they understood.
The other companies had their profit margins decreased from the new tax changes and even lost money, but the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s profit margin were always very high, so even if it dropped a bti from the new tax changes, they still earned quite a bit.
Like this, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce used higher sales volume to make up for the losses brought from the increased taxes.
However, this was something that made the other companies envious.
The Frestech Brand magic machines could keep this decent profit margin in this situation because the Frestech Brand had always been much more expensive compared to the other brands.
Although the Frestech Brand had lost quite a few markets from this in the past two years, in this situation, the Frestech Brand could keep surviving and their competitiveness.
For the Frestech Brand to have so many people buying it even though it was so expensive, other than the Frestech Brand being at a higher quality than the other brands of household magic machines, it was because the Frestech Brand had been building their brand over the years.
Because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s advertisements, people always believed the Frestech Brand was the highest brand. Purchasing the Frestech Brand meant having face.
Just this alone created the disparity between the Frestech Brand and other brands. As for the difference in quality and performance, it was even greater.
So because of these two reasons, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could keep up their sales and profits while the other companies couldn’t do a thing.
“Those other fellows don’t need to envy us.” Heinz looked at the last month’s financial report that Sebas had just given him and gave a deep sigh, “Although this year’s sales are twice that of last years, in the end, our profit last month was just under one hundred and thirty thousand gold coins. It isn’t even a third of what it was last year, this really is…..”
Kennard on the side tightly knit his brows as he stared at the calm looking Xu Yi, feeling confused.
Xu Yi had said to him two months ago that he could let those fellows suck the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s blood, he could accept it as long as they didn’t suck the Frestech Chamber of Commerce dry.
In these two months, he had seen the effects of Xu Yi’s decision and felt very confused.
If Xu Yi had expected this and expanded the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production scale to take back most of the household magic machine markets in the kingdom, Kennard would feel admiration for Xu Yi’s foresight.
But after being with Xu Yi for so long, he knew that Xu Yi didn’t care about how far the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could develop, rather he cared much more about how the magic machine industry developed as a whole.
Now that all the magic machine companies in Banta City other than the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was beaten half to death by City Lord Kamado’s policies, this was not what Xu Yi wanted to see.
“Could it be that sir chairman has changed? He doesn’t care about his ideals and becomes someone who cares about his own interests?” Kennard guessed in his heart.
Although he knew in his heart that choosing to do so meant one was a qualified merchant, only Xu Yi who couldn’t qualify as a merchant before was filled with charm. It was because he was an arrogant person like everyone claimed that he was willing to become Xu Yi’s subordinate, working for two years under him.
Kennard stared at Xu Yi as he tried to guess his thoughts. Xu Yi’s eyes swept over everyone’s face and seeing their knit brows, he revealed a smile.
“Alright, I think that everyone understands the problems our company is facing, right?”
Everyone looked at each other and nodded with sighs.
The household magic machine department manager Ankhto said with a bitter smile, “Sir chairman, to be honest, I don’t think that our household magic machine department will be able to earn a hundred thousand gold coins this time. This really…..makes me feel useless.”
“This isn’t related to you.” The dwarf Naru who was in charge of the steel mill gave a snort, “If it wasn’t for that idiot City Lord creating this damn tax policy, how could our company earn so little in a single month? Damn! The two steel mills under me actually lost money last month! This is simply a shame to us!”
Ankhto looked at him with sympathy, “There’s no other way, many companies have stopped producing, so naturally there is a decrease in demand. Adding in the fact that City Lord Kamado has added a security tax because there are too many dwarven workers, it’s good that you’re not losing too much.”
“Security my ass!” Naru angrily said, “So what if there are many dwarven workers? Why is it unsafe? This is completely that Kamado discriminating against us dwarves! I want to report him to the kingdom’s other race management department!”
“Wake up, Naru, the other race management department already rarely gives labour cards, they couldn’t care. I think that there will be an announcement soon that other races won’t be allowed to work in human companies anymore.” Amelud who managed the Night Song Tribe’s plastic factory on the side said with a sigh, “Your steel mill is being forced to pay a security tax, but our plastic process factory is being forced to shut down or be transferred to human management.”
“Right, speaking of this, what did you do in the end? Are you really shutting down?” Naru asked in a curious voice.
“No, we’re planning on moving to the Stantine Duchy. Other than us, the fertilizer factory of the Moon Shadow Tribe is planning on leaving with us. Anyway, the Moon Shadow Tribe already lives in the Stantine Duchy.” Amelud replied.
Naru turned to Xu Yi with knit brows, “Sir chairman, I say, are your human officials idiots? They are chasing us away, what advantages would they gain from that?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “You should ask them that. Alright, since everyone understands the company’s difficult position, I will announce something that I think most people shouldn’t be surprised by.”
Hearing this, everyone couldn’t help looking at him.
Naru asked, “Sir chairman, are you really announcing that our company is shutting down?”
“How could that be?” Xu Yi shook his head, “The thing I want to announce is…..I’ve already given my application to the Royal Parliament to resign as a viscount.”
“Ah?”
The room was filled with a shocked cry.