BXBX NOVEL Chapter 80.4
Chapter 80.4
“Why don’t you have the materials?”
Alice, the president of the Lannon Trading Company, screamed at the empty warehouse and store.
The food that had been there for so long had disappeared from the Royal Capital. This was because the Isbell Continent merchants, who had bought up all the food in just a few weeks, had visited all the farms in the Royal Capital area and purchased most of the food at five times the normal price.
The plantation managers, who had been beaten down by the wealthy merchants because of the good harvest, were happy to sell their crops for five times the price. It was said that they all believed that if they sold their crops, what more the nobleman’s plantation also had a good harvest, so they would not be troubled by food shortages.
At the same time, some stores began to sell large quantities of food in their stores.
They were not in the area near the royal castle or the noble district, where the wealthy merchants had their business associations, but in the commoners’ area near the walls surrounding the Royal Capital. These were the merchants who were beginning to be favored by the king.
“What is this price?”
“You don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to.”
The price was ten times the normal price. Surprised at the wildly inflated profit, the wealthy merchants tried to threaten and harass the small store commoner merchants, but they were all stopped by a group of volunteer commoners.
The small store merchants, however, had the commoners completely on their side, as they held daily soup kitchens in the artisan district outside the city walls.
The wealthy merchants could not get in touch with the Prime Minister, on whom they relied on, and when they asked the knights and soldiers to crack down on them, however the small store merchants had provided the castle and the soldiers’ quarters with enough food for their needs free of charge, and the wealthy merchants’ request was brushed aside.
Even so, they could not survive without food, especially if they were food vendors.
The wealthy merchants gritted their teeth and offered to sell the food to the small store merchants, but their offer was never fulfilled.
“A small mercantile house like ours can’t handle Isbell silver coins. Please pay in Caenista gold coins.”
The cornered small store merchants, who had been introduced to good adventurers through the guild of commerce, decided to take wagons loaded with Isbell silver coins to the border of a neighboring country to buy food.
The area had experienced a bad harvest, and merchants from neighboring countries would be coming to sell food. The price would probably be several times higher than what they were willing to pay, but even so, the only people who could spend this large amount of Isbell silver coins were the merchants from the neighboring country.
However, the wealthy merchants who entered the area that had suffered a bad harvest saw an incredible sight. Churches and lords’ mansions were providing food for the people, and the stores in town were stocked with crops, though not many.
Perhaps a merchant from a neighboring country had gone mad with humanitarian spirit and sold food at a low price? There were no traders from the neighboring country selling food there, but they talked to the few remaining traders who were willing to talk.
“Oh, if it was food, some merchant bought it for a large amount of Isbell Continent silver coins. We were reluctant because we didn’t want to have many silver coins from a different continent, but they said they would pay five times as much, so we sold it all without a second thought.”