CHAPTER 224: THE GRAY FORT EMPEROR’S DECISION

Social change is always complex.

Any little butterfly that appears could potentially create a massive impact. But during specific time periods, at specific points in time, some changes follow predictable patterns.

The emergence of industry inevitably gives rise to a new class centered around mechanical factories.

Originally, most of them might have been nobles with no land or very little land. But after this, they’d all become a new interest group split off from the great nobles. And this emerging interest group would inevitably exploit the original landowning nobility.

Cotton, grain—it was all the same!

This was a complete chain. Even if no one pushed it forward, it would naturally happen on its own.

Even if more powerful nations stepped in, they couldn’t solve this problem. Even if they could get raw materials from outside the country, they still couldn’t solve it. At best, they could just delay the process...

The limit of what a nation could do was this: after industrialization was completely stable and residents’ incomes had risen dramatically, the country could introduce concepts like "local products are best" to brainwash citizens into thinking domestic agricultural products were the best and most suitable for locals, or unite all the landowning nobles into one entity so they could jack up food prices...

But early on, they absolutely couldn’t do that! Once they did, the industrialization process would stall.

You could say that throughout this process, farmers who owned land and great nobles who owned tons of land were destined to become the exploited.

On the way to the palace, Tricky Coin Al thought about what would happen once these Magic Conductor agricultural machines became widespread. He thought about the trade situation between two countries. He thought about all kinds of "consequences."

He hesitated for a moment!

But quickly, he threw it all aside. Change was destined to require some people to sacrifice. Hadn’t his currency reform with the Gray Fort Emperor been exactly like this? Even more bloody, actually.

The tide of the times had already arrived. Rather than wait for slow change, better for him to accelerate it all. Better swift action than prolonged agony. After completing industrial reform, they would ultimately find their own place in the new era!

Tricky Coin Al’s wavering heart became increasingly resolute!

As the Gray Fort Emperor’s once most trusted subordinate and biggest private money bag, Tricky Coin Al easily entered the palace and met the Gray Fort Emperor...

They hadn’t seen each other in just a short time, but Tricky Coin Al felt like the Emperor seemed both much older and much more energetic.

"Al, how do you have time to come over? The Golden Merchant Guild shops opened, new-style clothing went on sale—you should be swamped right now, right?"

At this moment, the Gray Fort Emperor had zero airs about him and spoke with a cheerful smile.

No matter where these new-style clothes came from or who was at the top of the Golden Merchant Guild, he knew one thing: he had a piece of all the Golden Merchant Guild’s future business in the Gray Fort Empire, and that alone was enough to make him very happy.

"Your Majesty, I’m here today actually about new-style clothing too. But not the stuff the Golden Merchant Guild is selling—it’s about... the ones we can produce ourselves. If nothing goes wrong, in three years, every single person in the Gray Fort Empire can change into several new sets of clothes every year. During the Frigid Moon, no one will ever freeze to death again!"

With his opening line, Tricky Coin Al hooked the Gray Fort Emperor’s attention. Then he quickly laid out everything about textile Magic Conductors, agricultural Magic Conductors, Magic Conductor factories, approximate production capacity, achievable results, and so on.

For a moment, the two of them seemed to return to over twenty years ago, to that period when the Gray Fort Empire was going through currency reform...

Risk and opportunity coexisted. The enormous risks of change and the massive rewards kept clashing in this small room. Time passed bit by bit.

Night fell.

Tonight’s night carried more decadent sounds than usual.

The next day, the Golden Merchant Guild’s stocking sales became even more explosive. Compared to new-style clothing, these special stockings seemed especially loved by people. Just as Viscount Roster and the others had initially guessed, stockings seemed to be becoming the Golden Merchant Guild’s real flagship product, with other clothes taking a back seat.

Kingdom of Dawn, Southern Territory.

Viscount Roster used the Magic Net’s "database" function, watching as Golden Merchant Guild members from various places continuously input sales data representing all kinds of different styles, designs, and types of clothing, as well as some specialty products—how much sold in each location. A deep smile spread across his face.

"Influenced by local culture, the clothing styles and colors people prefer in each place are vastly different. After this first round of sales is complete, we can send different goods to different places based on these preferences, and collect the leftover inventory from the first round to send to regions that prefer those leftovers more."

This actually wasn’t surprising to them.

Although everyone instinctively pursues beautiful things, people’s understanding of beauty actually has some variance.

Even though they could shape and influence people’s aesthetics to some extent through the Magic Net and through faith in the Goddess of Love and Beauty, they couldn’t possibly make every single person in every single region have the same aesthetic.

Under the influence of different cultures, people’s thinking was completely different.

For example, in the Kingdom of Dawn, things were overall more traditional—flesh-colored stockings sold best. But in the Gray Fort Empire, black was people’s most beloved color. Looking over at the Elven Kingdom, white sold best. Some merchants even noted that some local elves wanted to "dye this stuff green" and asked whether they could supply green stockings.

Just the color of stockings alone had this much variation, never mind tons of different styles and colors of clothes.

Besides that, due to dietary habits and other issues, the clothing sizes people needed in different regions actually varied too.

Thinking about this, Viscount Roster couldn’t help but sigh. This "database" really was the best tool for managing an organization.

Forget anything else—just this function of real-time reporting of sales situations in various regions had a huge impact.

Without it, who knew how much leftover inventory there’d be. Even just knowing the approximate sales situation in different places might take several months.

The dwarf elf Labrechaun also saw this situation and finally completely understood Viscount Roster’s intention. "For the next round of shipping, I’ll categorize things based on local sales... Oh, and for the next round, I’ll mainly reference the first three days of sales from this round, especially the stuff that sold out first. The later stuff might just be customers compromising."

"Compromises can also be used as reference, just at a lower ratio. What we really need to pay special attention to is what doesn’t sell. Production on my end will work the same way, don’t worry about that..."

Before Viscount Roster could finish typing his message, an announcement suddenly appeared in front of every Magic Net user currently surfing online.