Volume 4 Chapter 56
Wave going out
In the past few years, when New Years passed, there would be countless people coming from other cities to Banta City looking for jobs.
These people surpassed the local population by several times, so every year at this time, Banta City would be filled with people and was very busy.
But as soon as the new year passed this year, the people of Banta City found that there were far fewer people from other regions in Banta City.
Although there were people coming in from other places on the Fersen Carriage Company’s Magic Cars, there were far less than before.
The large drop made the citizens who were familiar with the scene of several years ago feel that Banta City had become lonely this year.
When the new year slowly passed, the people of Banta City noticed something shocking.
Because of the increase in people and the increase in income, the large companies of the city would build countless shops that satisfy the needs of these people.
But now there were shops that were announcing they were closing.
At first the Amrit Chamber of Commerce announced that they were closing the house selling store outside the city, then the Armani Chamber of Commerce closed two clothing stores.
Then, there were many companies that quickly announced they were closing stores.
Every night when the people of Banta City slept, they would find that there were many stores that closed when they looked out again.
If it was said that the fewer people in the streets made people feel depressed, then the stores closing down made this feeling even deeper for people.
It was like in the blink of an eye, Banta City that was even more prosperous than Anvilmar City had suddenly dropped.
If this trend continued, it wouldn’t take long before Banta City returned to being the small and remote city of before.
Even if there were people who thought that Banta City had lost the peace of before from being too lively, everyone had to admit that this prosperous Banta City had allowed everyone to live better lives.
It was good to return to their peaceful lives, but that would make Banta City poor again. People lost their jobs and their lives became difficult again, which was not something that anyone could accept.
But whether they could accept it or not, whether they could stop it or not was a different matter.
Moreover, the fact in front of everyone was that this trend couldn’t be stopped. Banta City….seemed like it was already walking on this road without being able to return.
Seeing the signs of the familiar shops announcing their closing, only leaving the ten flags of the ten companies floating around Banta City, the people of Banta City couldn’t help feeling hatred when they looked at those flags.
If it wasn’t for these fellows, how could the Frestech Chamber of Commerce leave?
If the Frestech Chamber of Commerce didn’t leave, how could Banta City become like this?
The people who felt hatred, it wasn’t just the people who lost their good jobs. These ten companies had taken away benefits from many large and small nobles.
These nobles used to just need to invest in a company in Banta City, then they would be able to benefit each year and live good lives.
But with these ten companies pushing out the other companies, these nobles had suffered major losses.
If one was to compare hatred, these nobles hated them more than the commoners.
This situation wasn’t good, so these nobles could only hide their hatred.
If they waited for a good time, this hatred would definitely erupt.
But different from those nobles who couldn’t vent since they were nobles, the commoners felt hatred, but the most important things to them were their lives.
Now that those ten companies had taken most of the jobs in the city, they pushed down the wages and made them work much harder than the companies of Banta City had before.
If they stayed in Banta City, it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to obtain a good job.
So after considering it, the people of Banta City made a decision to leave Banta City and find jobs in other places.
Actually before this, when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce went to build the Frestech Farm in the Stantine Duchy, they had recruited many old farmers and many of them had moved their entire families over.
Adding in the large number of people who came from other places each year, it wasn’t that hard of a thing to accept for the people of Banta City to go to other places looking for work.
Before the first month had passed, there was a different situation in Banta City.
In the past, countless people came from all over, but this year there were people leaving Banta City.
Some went to the Mirando Duchy to the east.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce was working with the Mirando Duchy and the Rudson Kingdom, so they decided to build a new production base in Ampriston Town of the Mirando Duchy. They were now recruiting large amounts of workers and they needed workers familiar with magic machines.
At the same time, the Amrit Chamber of Commerce had also entered the Mirando Duchy. They were planning to create roads that connected all of the Mirando Duchy, so they needed large amounts of labour.
As well, the Armani Chamber of Commerce, the Sarank Chamber of Commerce, and the old companies of Banta City moved many of their factories to Ampriston Town, so they were also recruiting workers that were willing to move with them.
It was said that the Mirando Duchy had given large cuts in taxes and plenty of policies of support to attract these companies to invest there.
Although this meant that the products produced in Ampriston Town would be considered foreign goods if it was sold in the Lampuri Kingdom, the companies had announced that they weren’t planning on selling these goods in the Lampuri Kingdom at all.
After all, there were many other large markets on the continent other than the Lampuri Kingdom.
Some went directly for the Rudson Kingdom to the south.
Last year, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, and the Amrani Chamber of Commerce had invested in factories in the Rudson Kingdom. This year, the Rudson Kingdom was working with them even more deeply.
Although the Rudson Kingdom requested these three companies to recruit local workers, these three companies still needed to recruit a large number of Banta City workers to satisfy their needs for skilled workers.
At the same time, the Rudson Kingdom had also obtained the household magic machine technology from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so they needed skilled workers for their factories.
The Rudson Kingdom naturally didn’t have this kind of people, so naturally they looked for skilled workers from Banta City.
Moreover, the Rudson Kingdom was giving out an even higher wage than these three companies.
For a highly skilled carver, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was only offering a wage of fourteen gold coins, not adding in overtime. The Rudson Kingdom factory was offering at least eighteen gold coins and several high level benefits.
Other than going south or east, the rest of the people went west.
Most of them entered the Black Rice Wasteland and stopped there. They were looking for work at the production base the four companies and now many other companies of Banta City had invested in.
The final part went to the south of the Black Rice Wasteland, entering the Stantine Duchy.
These people mostly entered the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factories in the Stantine Duchy. A part of them were recruited by the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, building the newest Waterfront Garden Neighbourhood for them.
There were many people who came to Banta City looking for jobs, but after arriving and learning of the situation, most of them went in one of these directions and left Banta City again.
In the first month of the new year, Banta City was very chaotic from people who kept coming in and out.
Once the first month passed, halfway through the second month, one would find that in this city that people called the city of miracles, it had completely become empty.
When the cold breeze of early spring came, there was a ball of rolled up paper that rolled around several times before landing at Seveni’s feet.
Looking down at it, Seveni carefully picked it up and opened it. On it, she found that it was an advertisement for the Armani Chamber of Commerce’s clothing store.
There were many beautiful images on it and when she looked up at the cold and lonely street without any people, Seveni couldn’t help feeling pain in her heart.
She remembered that this Banta City was even more prosperous than Anvilmar City and its people were always smiling, so why did it become like this?
Although she knew that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce leaving would definitely affect it, Seveni never thought that they would affect the city this much.
Banta City had become prosperous at first because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, developing the magic machine industry and developing Banta City itself.
But now that Banta City had been ruined because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had left.
Could it be that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was this important to Banta City?
Actually there was no need to ask this question, Seveni already knew the answer.
She wouldn’t feel regret over things that had already passed. She came to Banta City this time, other than looking for Xu Yi to help with the refugee problem of her territory, she had something else important to do.
The current Banta City was also the same appearance as the current Lampuri Kingdom.
This change wasn’t a good change and Seveni saw many dangers from this change.
Even if she didn’t want to interfere with the kingdom’s affairs, as the princess and as Lampuri Thirteenth’s daughter, she had to do something for this country.
The first thing had to start from Banta City.