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Chapter 65: Starting The Clothing Market
After the motorcade of Grand Duke Orville and the envoy of the Anas Empire left, the next thing was the matter of Boris.
Xia Zuoyi understood that Boris’ sudden arrival to Desinian Territory must’ve been more than just a surprise.
As expected.
One day after Orville left, Boris found him alone.
“Little Zuoyi, let’s talk about cooperation in the chamber of commerce.”
Xia Zuoyi nodded and brought Boris into the study.
At present, the main cooperation between the Thorns Chamber of Commerce and the Nagabi Chamber of Commerce is not only the initial herbal medicine, but also includes herbal ointment and water-grained paper.
The Nagabi Chamber of Commerce paved the way for the establishment of the Thorns Chamber of Commerce in the Anas Empire, enabling it to successfully enter the imperial market and gather money through the large-scale sale of plant medicines and ointments.
The two things that the Thorns Chamber of Commerce sells most are rose salt and medicine for treating injuries.
This is also the foundation of the Thorns Chamber of Commerce.
It’s the things that people have to use every day.
It’s the things that can save lives at critical moments. Even fanatical believers will say that the plant medicines and ointments of the Thorns Chamber of Commerce are more effective than the holy water given by the God of Creation.
The sale of these two brings a steady stream of money to the Thorns Chamber of Commerce.
It is precisely because of this that it was possible to support the smooth implementation of Xia Zuoyi’s plan to rebuild the two cities.
The Nagabi Chamber of Commerce has given him enough convenience and help in these three years.
Among them, the Thorns Chamber of Commerce can gain a foothold in the Anas Empire and is inseparable from Boris.
However, the reason why the Thorns Chamber of Commerce has not been jointly suppressed by other chambers of commerce is also due to Xia Zuoyi’s reputation of being an alchemist.
Where is the drug configuration so easy?
Although alchemy is related to medicine to a certain extent, it is different from the latter.
Alchemy is a bold idea, committed to the direction of refining the “philosopher’s stone”, which inevitably includes metal substances.
Most metals are toxic.
Medicine is strict.
What’s more, if you don’t understand the properties, pharmacology, the usage, and dosage of herbal medicines, how can you successfully formulate drugs that can treat patients.
Xia Zuoyi’s greatest reliance is his unique “alchemy method”.
He is a genius alchemist. The other famous alchemists and the alchemy tower built in Wissas are the best proof.
But what Boris wants to discuss with him today is also these two issues.
The original salt sales channels have been controlled by the Nagabi Chamber of Commerce. Later, after the emergence of a more convenient and better quality seawater salt drying method, the salt sales channels were expanded.
The Nagabi Chamber of Commerce is no longer the only one. It gradually loosened its control on the sale of salt.
After three years of development, many chambers of commerce have already begun to sell salt.
The prices of these salts were lower, and once they appeared, they quickly occupied the market share. Although they didn’t reach the point of squeezing rose salt and nagabi salt out of the market, they also made the prices of the two kinds of salt drop again and again.
In Boris’s view, this is a malicious competition cycle.
But in Xia Zuoyi’s view, this is a normal trend.
After all, the method of drying salt in seawater is there. Anyone who is interested will learn it. Moreover, the price of salt will only get cheaper and cheaper until it drops to a certain extent.
Regarding the plant medicines and ointments, Boris brought a message to Xia Zuoyi.
“Do you know Chebman Norton?” Boris said.
Xia Zuoyi nodded, “Yes, a very famous alchemist master. He also minors in medicine.”
This alchemist has been famous for a long time and is highly respected by the people in the alchemy association.
Since Xia Zuoyi chose to become an alchemist, he naturally had to know something about it.
After he successfully obtained the title of alchemist, he conducted a lot of investigations.
Among them, Chebman Norton’s name often appears in the inquiries.
—He has made a lot of achievements and is undoubtedly a very famous and highly respected person.
“What’s the matter with him?”
Xia Zuoyi asked. Presumably, Boris mentioned him at this time because he must have something to do with medicines and ointments.
He was right.
Boris said that after years of painstaking research, Chebman has finally produced effective drugs for cough, fever, abdominal pain, and other related diseases.
In addition, he also developed an ointment specifically to treat the entrance of the anus.
Xia Zuoyi almost choked on his saliva.
Anus’ entrance? Is it an ointment for hemorrhoids?
He asked doubtfully.
Boris didn’t find it hard to say, so he explained in detail the symptoms of ointment treatment, such as bloody stool, pain, restlessness…
It’s really a reaction to hemorrhoids.
Xia Zuoyi couldn’t help sighing, “Chebman is worthy of being a master alchemist.”
As a lord, he can’t always study potions and so on. There are so many things he needs to deal with at ordinary times that he will inevitably make slow progress in potions and ointments.
Boris leaned back in his chair, knocked on the table with one hand, and sneered, “There’s no denying that Chebman is really talented.”
“But you see what kind of medicines and ointments he has developed. Except for this kind of anorectal ointment, all the other medications collide with those you have developed. I don’t believe that there is nothing in it.”
“If he really has the ability to develop drugs, why didn’t he have any achievements in this field before you?”
“Little Zuoyi, you know, he’s an old man of several decades. He hasn’t researched these for decades. Why can he make it now?”
“What’s more, I sent someone to investigate. Before that, Chebman had ordered people to buy a large number of medicines and ointments from the chamber of commerce…”
Chebman had such achievements only after the research of Xia Zuoyi. It’s self-evident how he got them.
Boris said, “Little Zuoyi, don’t be too optimistic.”
“You don’t know, Chebman Norton has been recruited by the Ed Chamber of Commerce before. It is now also selling the same herbal medicines and ointments at a much lower price than ours…”
Ed Chamber of Commerce is the largest chamber of commerce in the Saint Airo Empire.
Although its status cannot be compared with that of the Nagabi Chamber of Commerce, its ability to gain a foothold in an empire and make it bigger must not be underestimated.
The most important thing is that the Ed Chamber of Commerce is backed by the royal family of the Saint Airo Empire, just as the Nagabi Chamber of Commerce secretly having the support of the Anas Empire’s royal family. So it can’t be moved easily.
Once the same but cheaper drugs appear on the market, the advantages of both nagabi chamber of Commerce and the Thorns Chamber of Commerce will be completely lost.
Unless they also start to reduce the prices of medicines and ointments.
But even so, the large amount of lost gold coins cannot be recovered, and subsequent sales will definitely decline.
Xia Zuoyi is not as angry as Boris. The popularization of necessities and being studied are the normal trend.
Because this is an extremely huge market, even if you only occupy a small market share in it, the profit is also considerable.
Businessmen are chasing after profit. He wasn’t surprised by this result.
Furthermore, he would not deny Chebman Norton’s ability.
After all, there must have been countless alchemists in the past three years who wanted to study the botanical potions and ointments sold in the chamber of commerce.
However, until now, only Chebman Norton is the only one who understands and makes it.
Not only that, he also made a cream for hemorrhoids.
Chebman Norton’s abilities need not be questioned.
Xia Zuoyi thought of this and said to Boris, “I remember that Chebman’s status is not low and he is also a nobleman. Since there is the Ed Chamber of Commerce behind him, and it is backed by the Saint Airo Empire…”
“Chebman did not choose to develop a drug and then release it. Instead, he chose to develop all the drugs and sell them in the Ed Chamber of Commerce at one time, which shows that they have been fully prepared for this.”
“We can’t move him now. There’s no need to entangle this matter to the end.”
“In the future, I will continue to study herbal medicine and ointment, medical operations for treating trauma, and so on. What’s more, it’s time to add money to other projects.”
Boris raised his head when he heard his words, and his deep lake-green eyes flashed with interest, “What do you want to do?”
Xia Zuoyi: “Do you think the riding outfit I asked the tailors to make for you looks good?”
“It does.”
Boris nodded and soon understood what he meant, “Do you want to sell this riding outfit?”
Before Xia Zuoyi could answer, Boris frowned, “Little Zuoyi, I think you’d better think it over again. It’s not feasible to sell riding clothes.”
“Only aristocrats can wear riding clothes. And this style can be sewn by skilled tailors as long as they buy it and take it apart for research…”
He shook his head. This kind of business is very not cost-effective.
Boris obviously didn’t agree.
Xia Zuoyi said, “Boris, it’s not just riding outfits. How can there be only one kind of clothes I want to launch.”
“I plan to take two routes. One is high-end customization and the other is affordable to the people.”
“High level customization is mainly aimed at nobles, while affordable and people-friendly clothing is aimed at some small manor owners and all civilians and slaves…”
Knowing that Xia Zuoyi must have an idea of his own, Boris listened to him quietly.
“Haute couture focuses on design, so the price is certainly not cheap. But let’s not talk about this for the moment.”
“Let’s first talk about affordable and people-friendly clothing. The focus is on women’s clothing…”
In this era, nobles have the conditions to dress up gorgeously, but the style and design of the clothes are very monotonous. Monotonous to the point of being ugly.
For example, the riding outfit that Xia Zouyi disliked. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought of improving it.
However, small manor owners, poor civilians, or slaves who have no extra money have no conditions to choose luxury clothes.
Especially commoners and slaves. They still have to live a full life and have their basic necessities, such as food, clothing, and shelter. They couldn’t even think of dressing themselves up.
The colors of their clothes are mostly black and grayish white, without decorations and characteristics.
Some clothes are even just a simple robe, with three more holes for the head and two arms to pass through.
The market for women’s clothing is unimaginably huge.
Women love beauty by nature. If there is a new and beautiful dress with a cheaper price, which woman can withstand the temptation.
Since he had exchanged so many fashion design books, he can’t let his reputation points be wasted.
These books are professional books for designers to learn. Many trend-leading styles that have appeared in the past are broken down by examples, which can allow designers to learn and motivate creative inspiration.
Xia Zuoyi is not a designer.
However, he has a normal understanding of beauty and has also watched catwalk shows in modern times. His aesthetics has been online all the time. It’s still possible to pull up the backward fashion design in the western continent. Maybe many designers will emerge in the future.
—All designers are tailors.
He felt that this sentence was extremely correct.
Xia Zuoyi told Boris his thoughts.
As the leader of the Nagabi Chamber of Commerce, Boris naturally has a keen business intuition. He can perceive the huge business opportunities in this area, so he asked about cooperation.
Xia Zuoyi: “First of all, I need the dyeing process of the Anas Empire. Boris, you will give me this process for free.”
Translator’s Note:
Again, thank you so much, MCJohnston~ Hope you all enjoy this double update~~