Volume 4 Chapter 31 In depth cooperation
The nobles were only something to the commoners.
On earth, this clear social class divide had already been eliminated, but for a half feudal and half slave society on the Sines Continent, there was a very clear and very wide social divide.
At the top layer there were nobles.
Slaves were people with no rights and could be killed at will. For the commoners, nobles not only enjoyed respect, with their higher status, they earned many privileges.
For example, nobles could become officials, nobles could reduce taxes, nobles could have their personal horse carriages, nobles could not kneel when seeing his majesty, nobles could……
In short there were many rights that only nobles had. There were clear differences between nobles and commoners, so having a noble status meant being at a stage higher than commoners, allowing them to look down on commoners.
Even if nobles had strict divisions among them, to the commoners, this was almost a different world. So no matter who it was, once they became a noble, they would do everything to increase their status and do everything they could to keep, allowing them to enjoy the rights a noble had.
In the history of the Sines Continent, it had always been nobles losing their rights after abusing their status, there had never been a noble who asked to give up their titles.
Most of these stories belonged in the fantasies that girls loved to hear. A noble male lead gave up his status for a commoner girl, going against his family’s wishes and running away with that commoner.
But in reality, if there was a noble that did this, even the girls who loved reading love stories would call that noble an idiot.
Giving a noble status to their lover was also the dream of the commoner girls, but once a noble lost their status, what meaning did that dream have?
So that meant no matter what angle it was viewed from, it would be impossible for a noble to give up the noble status that was hard to earn because he would be given up plenty of rights as a noble.
Unless that person was an idiot.
But…..was Xu Yi an idiot?
As the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman who created the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, bringing it to become one of the top companies in the Lampuri Kingdom, single handedly promoting the creation of the magic machine industry and turning a small city like Banta City into the economical center of the kingdom, who would call this kind of person an idiot?
But Xu Yi did something that everyone considered very idiotic.
He actually gave up his noble status with the Royal Parliament!
When this news was spread by the «Banta Times» and confirmed by the «Lampuri Weekly», everyone was stunned.
No one thought that Xu Yi was an idiot, but no one could understand why he gave up his status as a noble. So….why?
Why did he do this?
“I’ve already said this before, I never cared about this status as a noble. Giving it up is fine, it’s not much.” Xu Yi replied with a smile.
Seveni looked at Xu Yi for a while with her eyes filled with doubt.
“I know that the status as a noble isn’t important to you, but Xu Yi, you have to admit, doesn’t this noble status bring many conveniences to you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce? At least, it is because you are a viscount that you can have such a large territory. You can place all the facilities of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce on this land and save quite a bit of money for your company. Isn’t this what you told me before?”
“Un, it is indeed like this.” Xu Yi nodded before changing the topic, “But Seveni, have you ever thought that my status, my land, and the benefits brought to me by that land, where did all of this come from?”
“Is there a need to ask? Of course it’s because you……” Seveni suddenly stopped.
She suddenly remembered that Xu Yi had strangely become a noble from a citizen because of the recognition of Lampuri Thirteenth.
Later when Xu Yi became a viscount, what had approved of giving him territory and allowed Xu Yi to remain as a merchant was all because of the praise that Lampuri Thirteenth had for him.
When Lampuri Thirteenth was still alive, of course there was no problem.
But the problem now was that Lampuri Thirteenth was no longer here.
“But there’s no need to give it up, right?” After thinking about it, Seveni was still confused, “Not mentioning anything else, after losing your status as a noble, the Falling Rain Valley will no longer be your territory. You will no longer enjoy the benefits of it being your territory and your Frestech Chamber of Commerce will be managed by Banta City, so there might be many problems.”
Seeing Seveni’s worried look, Xu Yi revealed a smile.
“Alright, in order to stop you from worrying, I’ll tell you the truth. In reality, I have already reached an agreement with his majesty Eric through City Lord Kamado. Un…..It can be considered a trade.”
“Trade?” Seveni knit her brows, “But I can’t see any benefits your Frestech Chamber of Commerce could gain from this.”
“Benefits……If I said that our company has real free trading rights, what would you think?”
“Real free trading rights? What do you mean?” Seveni asked in a confused voice.
“Specifically, it’s that our company can freely control our trades with other countries and don’t need to report to the kingdom’s parliament or the business department. When our company trades with other countries, it will be much more convenient.”
Seveni deeply knit her brows, “Doesn’t this mean supporting you in smuggling?”
Xu Yi’s eyes popped out, “Hey, your highness, you can’t say random words. Although we don’t need to report each time, we do have to report to the business department from time to time. Moreover, the taxes that we pay aren’t little, so how could it be considered smuggling?”
Seveni rolled her eyes at Xu Yi, “I don’t believe that you would spend this much effort to get this condition to be good.”
Xu Yi laughed, “I think that King Eric didn’t believe either, but he still agreed to my condition. Why do you think so?”
“Of course it’s because the condition you agreed to is too good.” Seveni gave a deep sigh, “Xu Yi, I don’t know what you are thinking, but I must warn you that by losing your noble status, you’ve lost the best protection for the production methods of your company. If…..I am saying if, if big brother Eric wants to do something to your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it’ll be much easier.”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “You think he’ll have scruples if I’m a noble? Don’t forget, when the previous king was here, the Royal Parliament had tried to take away my noble status. If they were to come again, there would be nothing stopping them.”
Seveni was silent for a while before asking, “The trade between you isn’t that simple. I think….that whether it is you or Eric, neither of you are willing, right?”
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile, “Of course, if it was just to obtain free trading rights for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, this deal doesn’t have any meaning to me at all. So giving up my noble status and returning my land to the parliament, letting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce fall under the management of Banta City is all part of the agreement I had with his majesty Eric.”
Seveni looked at Xu Yi and after thinking for a bit, she asked, “Based on your words, this should be related to the overall magic machine industry in Banta City, right?”
“Yes, the condition I gave King Eric is that he would cancel the special tax on magic machines and he would give the same treatment to all magic machine companies of the kingdom. At the same time, I asked the kingdom’s parliament to introduce several policies that would help the development of the magic machine industry. It would be best if they continued the preferential policies of Banta City from before.”
“He agreed?” Seveni was a bit surprised.
“Why wouldn’t he agree?” Xu Yi revealed a smile, “I’ve already made it very clear through City Lord Kamado, the kingdom’s finances need money which is understandable, but squeezing the magic machine industry like this isn’t a long term plan. Only by promoting the magic machine industry’s healthy growth would the kingdom receive the greatest benefits. King Eric isn’t an idiot, how could he not understand such a simple idea?”
“It isn’t that he doesn’t understand, but he won’t do this.” Seveni gave a sigh, “The people behind him are forcing him too much. Xu Yi, you made him agree to this condition, you must have paid a large price, right? It isn’t just enough to integrate the Frestech Chamber of Commerce into Banta City.”
“Of course not.” Xu Yi nodded with a smile, “Those greedy fellows only care about benefits, so I gave them the greatest benefit. Through an agreement with King Eric, we will deepen our cooperation with the kingdom’s magic machine department. We will be transferring the full production methods for the magic machines our company has to ten companies designated by the department.”
Seveni looked at Xu Yi in shock, “Are you crazy?”