Volume 4 Chapter 55 Almost no way to make a living
If Xu Yi knew that Seveni was complaining that he abandoned the Lampuri Kingdom and Banta City, he would definitely say that he was being wronged.
Because in the first half a month of the new year, he brought his family back to the Falling Star Manor of Banta City.
Moreover, just yesterday, he even went to a New Years banquet at the City Lord Manor, having a “nice and friendly” conversation with City Lord Kamado. Then he had some wine with some old friends of Banta City to the point that when he woke up on the first day of the New Years, his head still hurt from his hangover.
But the pain couldn’t affect his plan.
According to his plan, he would be meeting people on the first day. That not only included his old partners in Banta City, it also included City Lord Kamado and the representative of the ten companies.
Although their contracts had been broken, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce kept some facilities in Banta City, so they were a Banta City company in name, so there had to be some courtesy on the surface.
As for the thoughts of City Lord Kamado and the ten companies, they had the same idea as Xu Yi. Even if they wanted to show no courtesy to Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, when Xu Yi came, they were respectful and didn’t dare show any disrespect.
Although it was very easy to understand the courtesy of both sides, chairman Cruise was still very impatient because when he came to the Falling Star Manor for New Years greetings early in the morning, he never thought that Xu Yi would spend an entire morning greeting City Lord Kamado and the representatives of the ten companies. When Xu Yi finally came back, it was already noon.
“I say, Xu Yi, those fellows did all those things to your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, why are you still so polite with them?” Chairman Cruise saw Xu Yi who was looking very happy when he came back and knit his brows to ask, “Could it be that you are counting on those fellows to change their attitudes?”
“Of course that’s impossible.” Xu Yi shook his head with a faint smile, “Those are just normal greetings and I’m not giving them face, rather I’m giving Banta City face.”
“Giving Banta City face?” Chairman Cruise gave a cold snort, “Banta City’s face has already been lost by them.”
“Oh? Why do you say this?” Xu Yi sat down on the sofa and looked at chairman Cruise in surprise.
“Our Banta City has been the best in the area for the past few years, right? We weren’t even that much worse compared to Anvilmar City. But look at this year, those fellows have ruined Banta City, so there’s no need to mention Anvilmar City, we can’t even compare to the nearby Karma City and Saltan City anymore.” Chairman Cruise said with an angry look.
“It can’t be, right?” Xu Yi said in a surprised voice, “Banta City has been developing well in the past few years, even if they ruin things, it would still be better than the other cities, right?”
“Humph, it is indeed stronger now, but that might not be the case in another year or two.” Chairman Cruise said with a snort, “Right now other than those ten companies, all the other companies are planning to move. Take a look, Banta City’s prosperity was driven by the development of our companies, of course your Frestech Chamber of Commerce played the biggest role. Now that those fellows have chased out your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, we other companies are also having our livelihoods being taken away, so what prospects does Banta City have?”
“Can’t make a living anymore?” Xu Yi knit his brows, “Is it that exaggerated?”
“Of course!” Chairman Cruise raised his voice, “Do you know what bullshit policies that City Lord Manor has made during this time?”
“Oh? What? It’s related to your Amrit Chamber of Commerce?”
“Of course! The City Lord Manor has contacted us that laying roads and building houses will involve the kingdom’s land, so it will be managed by the kingdom’s parliament. The companies that are involved in these two industries must accept the arrangement of the City Lord Manor which they decide after researching. Our Amrit Chamber of Commerce, whether it is laying down roads or building houses has to submit a report to the City Lord Manor and finish it under the supervision of the City Lord Manor.”
Xu Yi thought about it and didn’t see anything wrong with this.
Because land was a limited resource and because of the existence of nobles, there wasn’t much land the kingdom controlled, so it was necessary for the kingdom’s parliament to strictly control these lands.
“Bullshit!” Chairman Cruise angrily waved his hand, “I have no objection if that’s all they care about, I don’t care about giving a bit of money either. But the City Lord Manor said that they were assigning the Meiya Chamber of Commerce as the company in charge of inspecting the land, which means they are clearly targeting our Amrit Chamber of Commerce. Do you know that this company is doing?”
“Isn’t it to evaluate the land usage of your company?” Xu Yi asked back.
Chairman Cruise gave a strong snort, “It’s fine if it’s just this! But the City Lord Manor has requested that our company has to cooperate with the Meiya Chamber of Commerce on all road building or construction projects. We can only start building after receiving approval from the Meiya Chamber of Commerce and during the construction, we need approval from the Meiya Chamber of Commerce.”
“Alright, this is considered normal. I don’t feel it’s anything important.” Xu Yi shook his head.
“This isn’t considered much?” Chairman Cruise’s eyes opened wide, “Do you know what the person from the Meiya Chamber of Commerce said?”
Seeing the angry look on chairman Cruise’s face, Xu Yi couldn’t help knitting his brows, “Could it be that they gave excessive conditions?”
“Excessive?” Chairman Cruise gave a cold laugh, “It’s not just excessive, it’s simply shameless! The Meiya Chamber of Commerce said that they wanted 30% of the shares in all road and construction projects our company will undertake! Moreover, they requested us to give them our various building techniques for them to check!”
Xu Yi was stunned, but then he couldn’t help smiling.
“Ha, ha, they are using the methods for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce on your Amrit Chamber of Commerce? Based on this, once the Meiya Chamber of Commerce gets your techniques, they will quickly release a rule stating that your Amrit Chamber of Commerce isn’t qualified to take construction projects?”
“Look, I knew you would understand.” Chairman Cruise spread his hands and helplessly said, “Tell me, isn’t this taking away my livelihood?”
Xu Yi smiled and shook his head, “Alright, if it was really this, you wouldn’t come complaining to me. Tell me, what are you planning on doing?”
Seeing that Xu Yi was asking about the main topic, the anger and helplessness disappeared from chairman Cruise’s face and he said with a serious look, “Xu Yi, if our Amrit Chamber of Commerce moves to the Stantine Duchy, do you think that would work?”
Although he had already guessed chairman Cruise’s plan, hearing him say it now, Xu Yi was a bit surprised.
The Amrit Chamber of Commerce had business all over, so they weren’t a company affected by Banta City. Even chairman Cruise had this idea now, perhaps all of Banta City’s companies other than the ten companies might be having this idea.
“That’s right, I have discussed this with chairman Vincent and the others, they all have this idea.” Chairman Cruise nodded to confirm Xu Yi’s guess, “The City Lord Manor isn’t just targeting our Amrit Chamber of Commerce, they are even moving against the Armani Chamber of Commerce, the Sarank Chamber of Commerce, and even the Falcao Chamber of Commerce. The companies losing their livelihoods isn’t just our Amrit Chamber of Commerce.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help deeply knitting his brows.
The City Lord Manor had the support of the kingdom’s parliament, but forgetting about moving against companies with deep backings like the Amrit Chamber of Commerce and the Armani Chamber of Commerce, they even moved against the Falcao Chamber of Commerce. Could it be that they weren’t worried about offending the Jole Family behind them?
Or could it be…..that the conservative nobles led by the Stagg Family were beginning to move against the other nobles of the kingdom?
If it was like this, the Lampuri Kingdom would not be peaceful.
“Un…..If you really want to move to the Stantine Duchy, there is no problem.” Xu Yi thought about it before saying with a nod, “It’s easy to make connections on the Stantine Duchy side, I can help you with this. But haven’t you considered a problem? Your situation is different from our company, if you want to get rid of the rules of the City Lord Manor, you just have to register your Amrit Chamber of Commerce in another place.”
“Of course I thought of this.” Chairman Cruise said in a deep voice, “I know what you are worrying about. Indeed, like this, our Amrit Chamber of Commerce would no longer be a Banta City company and would be losing the foundation that we built over many years. As for avoiding the restrictions of the kingdom’s parliament, we can just become a foreign company.”
“Can you accept this?” Xu Yi asked with a serious look.
“So what if I can’t accept it?” Chairman Cruise gave a sigh, “Those clearly want to run our company to death, if I let it end myself, I would be an idiot. Since I’m not qualified to fight and I can’t offend them, I can only hide.”
Xu Yi could only give a sigh.
Since his highness Eric became king, he expected this one day, but he never thought that the other side would move this quickly, this directly, or this fiercely.
Right now, they were a bit restrained dealing with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but dealing with the Amrit Chamber of Commerce who didn’t have a strong enough backing made their methods direct.
It was clear the Amrit Chamber of Commerce wasn’t the only company they wanted to deal with. From the actions of the City Lord Manor in the past half a year, their goal was to give Banta City to the ten companies. To put it differently, they wanted to give it to the nobles behind those ten companies.
The problem was, were they really that confident?
Were they certain that after chasing out the other companies, they can run Banta City as well as before?
Xu Yi deeply doubted this.