Volume 1 Chapter 121 Worker card
After manager Riley found an excuse to leave, Seveni revealed a smile with some extra meaning to Xu Yi as she said, “Chairman Xu, it seems like your partners in Banta City aren’t too happy with you?”
Xu Yi laughed and acted like he was surprised as she said, “Young miss Seveni, what are you saying? The large companies of our Banta City are good partners from the Business union, how could there be dissatisfaction? You must have mistaken something.”
Seveni smile and didn’t waste time pursuing this topic. She looked at the magic machine workshop she had just toured under Xu Yi’s guidance and thought about it before saying, “Chairman Xu, you just said that you are planning to use around a month to develop some new production magic machines to raise the production of agricultural magic machines. Are you confident in researching and developing these production magic machines?”
“Of course.” Xu Yi said responded in a very certain voice, “Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has large amounts of experience in developing production magic machines. Now that we have a powerful backing like Great Magician Camilla, I am certain it will succeed this time.”
Seveni softly shook her head, “Chairman Xu, you didn’t tell the truth. From the situation in Banta City and the information I’ve gathered in the past few days, the key of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is still you, this chairman. Whether it was the Magic Fan in the beginning or the agricultural magic machines that are important to the agricultural department, these magic machines all came from you and you played the most important part. So I don’t want to ask if your Frestech Chamber of Commerce can do this or not, I just want to ask you, do you have the confidence?”
Xu Yi looked at Seveni and noticed that her expression was very serious, without a trace of lies. It made people unable to not believe her words.
“Young miss Seveni, if I as the chairman didn’t have confidence, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce would have disbanded already, don’t you think?” Xu Yi asked back.
Seveni looked over the smile on Xu Yi’s face for a while before giving a slight nod, “I hope that chairman Xu will always be filled with confidence. Alright, I believe that you will develop the new production magic machines in a month and that the agricultural magic machines will be integrated into mass production. But chairman Xu, I have a question about the mass production you mentioned. According to what you said, if you can change the production line, the agricultural magic machine production rate can be increased by over ten times. But like this, will they be able to maintain the same quality? I feel that for anything, to maintain quality, one needs to be stringent.”
“The idea of being stringent is good, but young miss Seveni, your thoughts are being used in the wrong place. Going from hand building agricultural magic machines to using machines to mass produce is changing to a completely different method. Although the quantity has been increased, that does not mean the quality will be decreased like you said. If we use strict standards to guide it, the produced agricultural magic machines might even be of higher quality than hand produced ones.” Xu Yi pointed at the household magic machine workshop to the side and said, “In that workshops just now, you saw the first batch of Magic Fans and the newest batch of Magic Fans. Which do you think has the higher quality?”
“Of course it’s the newest batch of Magic Fans.” Seveni replied without any hesitation.
“Like you have seen, although the first batch of Magic Fans were made purely by the best craftsmen in Banta City, its quality can’t compare to the newest batch of Magic Fans assembled from the components made from the production magic machines. Although people are more flexible than machines, when it comes to mass production, human power comes far from being able to compare to machines. If his majesty just wants three thousand agricultural magic machines, I could just have the dwarven craftsmen finish them with their hands alone. But his majesty has requested thirty thousand units and even more, so unless we complete this with machine power, there is no other choice.”
Seveni thought about this before giving a slight nod, “Perhaps you’re right, but without seeing the products it produces first, I still have this doubt. I hope chairman Xu will not disappoint me.”
“Relax, I promise you won’t be disappointed.” Xu Yi revealed a smile before pausing and saying, “Young miss Seveni, I think you should know now that the ones making those agricultural magic machines for our company are those dwarves. Can you help me solve a problem?”
“Chairman Xu does not need to be this polite. My main task in coming here is to help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce complete his majesty’s orders. As long as your request will help complete these orders, you can mention them all.” Seveni said with a smile.
“That’s good.” Xu Yi didn’t stay polite as he continued, “Although those dwarves had been working for the company for several months, because they are dwarves in the end, they never received any certification from the kingdom. It makes it quite inconvenient for them to live here. Young miss Seveni, can you help solve this problem?”
“The kingdom has laws pertaining to this. As long as races other than humans fulfill these conditions, they can become citizens of the kingdom. I believe chairman Xu should know about this, right?” Seveni asked back.
“I do know about this, but young miss Seveni, you should be clear that these laws are too strict. If the dwarves want to become official citizens, not only do they have to fulfill a requirement for years lived in the kingdom, they have strict requirements in terms of taxes, it is impossible to achieve this in less than eight years. And to have these dwarves wait for eight years, perhaps our Frestech Chamber of Commerce will have disappeared by then.”
“Chairman Xu, are you joking?” Seveni looked at Xu Yi, “The Frestech Chamber of Commerce has such good prospects for development, how could it not last at least eight years. As for the request you’ve raised, I’m afraid I can’t respond to you. The laws of the kingdom are clearly written and it can’t just be changed for the two hundred dwarves of your Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
“I’m not requesting that you change the laws and I’m not hoping the kingdom can accept them as citizens, I was just hoping that you could give them a special certification to make it easier for them to live here. For example…..a worker card.” Xu Yi then said.
“Worker card?” Seveni looked at Xu Yi in surprised, “What does that mean?”
“A worker card is……Other than other races who are citizens of the kingdom, this can also be given to humans from other countries who want to work here. The people with worker cards can be employed by the companies of the Lampuri Kingdom. While their worker cards are in effect, they can stay, work and live a normal life in the Lampuri Kingdom. To put it simply, people with worker cards can be considered temporary citizens of the Lampuri Kingdom, but they are restricted by the companies. Once problems occur with these people, the kingdom officials can look to the companies that hire them to take responsibility. After their worker card expires, these people will lose their temporary citizen status. If they want to remain here, they can apply for it again and wait for the kingdom officials to approve it.” Xu Yi patiently explained.
Seveni looked at Xu Yi in surprise, “This idea isn’t bad, but how can you guarantee that these people will follow the kingdom’s laws?”
“I’ve just said it, these people rely on the companies and their employment status to enjoy this qualification. Other than watching these people, the officials just have to watch the companies as well. I think that the companies of our Lampuri Kingdom would care about their own feathers, right?”
Seveni thought about it and couldn’t help slowly nodding.
“This idea isn’t bad, but chairman Xu, you’ve forgotten a problem. Whether it is issuing the worker card or doing qualification tests, it requires a related department from the kingdom, the human resource needed won’t be small. With the kingdom’s current finances, I feel that it will be hard for his majesty and the Royal Parliament to accept this suggestion.”
“No money? Isn’t that simple?” Xu Yi laughed, “You need to pay money to apply for a worker card and while these cards are in effect, the companies that hire these people will also have to pay a fee, with the amount depending on the situation. Young miss Seveni, if it is like this, do you think his majesty and the Royal Parliament will not accept this suggestion?”
Seveni looked at Xu Yi with a strange gaze before slowly saying, “Chairman Xu, I suddenly feel that you shouldn’t be a merchant. How about working for the government?”
Xu Yi waved his hand, “I am a rotten merchant from head to toe, let’s forget about working for the government. Young miss Seveni, do you think my suggestion has any hope?”
“Un, if there are payments like you described, I think the difficulty in passing it is much lower.” Seveni said with a nod, “But chairman Xu, according to what you said, I don’t think there are that many humans or other races that qualify for this in the kingdom right now. How much are you planning to spend to obtain these rights for the two hundred dwarves in your company? Other than your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there should be other similar situations in the kingdom. If this law were to pass, what if the other companies aren’t willing to pay?”
“Isn’t that simple? They won’t enjoy the benefits if they don’t apply for the worker card and everything will be the same as before. As for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, like manager Riley said just now, because this chairman is a prodigal, he would be bored enough to apply for this kind of worker card for his workers.” Xu Yi gave a shrug as he casually said this.
Seveni broke out in laughter. After a while, her face returned to being serious as she asked, “How about the answer for the first question? How much money is your Frestech Chamber of Commerce planning on giving?”
“It’ll be up to the kingdom officials to decide how much it is, but I can give you our company’s bottom line.” Xu Yi raised his hand, “Five gold coins per worker, what do you think?”
“Five gold coins?” Seveni’s beautiful eyes opened wide and she took a deep breath. She looked at Xu Yi with an emotional gaze, “Chairman Xu, you really are good to your workers.”