With the future direction decided, I immediately take action. First, I’ll make use of the cooperation promised by the people here.
“Lady Miralene, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Ohoho, no need to be timid. I won’t take such an attitude with someone who speaks to the queen as you did.”
“Then I’ll be direct. Among the nobles you’re acquainted with, how many are virtuous?”
“Let’s see…”
After thinking for a bit about my question, Miralene answered me in order of higher peerage.
“One marquis house, two count houses, four viscount houses, and six baron houses, I believe?”
“Then after this, I’d like you to appeal to those noble houses and have them cooperate after explaining our plan.”
“What exactly should they do?”
“It’s simple. I’m planning to transfer the rights to the cookie recipe served today to the Commercial Guild, and have them sell the recipe itself. Eventually, recipe sales will take place at all the Commercial Guilds in this country.”
“So anyone could buy and sell your cookies anytime, anywhere.”
“Of course, just doing that won’t speed up the spread of my cookies. That’s where cooperating with the nobles to distribute the cookies throughout the country comes in.”
By selling the recipe at the Commercial Guild, chefs will buy it. They’ll sell what they make using that recipe. That will gradually make my cookies known, but the spread is still expected to be slow.
So I’ll also sell the cookies myself, not just in the royal capital but also in the cities I’ve used as bases until now, to help diffusion of the cookies. Food businesses tend to have low margins and high volume, so the compensation for the labor is low, but for this cookie project, profitability can be ignored since the goal is saturating the country with them.
Of course, it’s meaningless as a business if it’s not profitable, but I think we can manage that by adjusting the pricing.
“Roland-chan, is there anything we can do?”
“Once recipes are on sale at the Commercial Guild, anyone can start selling cookies after buying one. At that time, you can recruit villagers to produce cookies and sell what they make.”
“Looks like we’ll be busy.”
“With that, I declare this tea party closed.”
After that talk, I saw off the royalty, Rosenbergs, Byreuses, and Malberts in order and gave the leftover sweets I had to the kings and family heads as gifts.
The people of this world, men and women alike, seem to love sweets, as the men’s faces lit up when given the treats. Of course, I waited until the women had returned to their rooms before giving them out. Can’t be negligent about that.
And so the eventful tea party somehow concluded without incident, but in exchange, I now had to work on a national scale. For now, I returned to the manor to clean up after the tea party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several days passed after that. The day after the tea party, exhausted mentally and subjected to Nagartinya’s hellish demands for more kisses, I accomplished nothing except beating her half to death.
The next day I holed up in the kitchen to develop an easy cookie recipe anyone could make, and somehow managed to complete it the day after that. Ruzzo’s assistance was crucial for that.
And today, after quite some time, I visited the Commercio Trading Company. While I had been dropping by when I found the time to check on things, Machad has considerable business acumen as the son of a merchant. Without me giving detailed instructions, just delivering goods and leaving sales and company management to him was plenty.
“Long time no see.”
“Rolando-sama! It really has been a while.”
“Sorry for leaving everything to you.”
“No no, this is easy work for me.”
Apparently just having to sell delivered goods is an easy job for Machad since I don’t make him source lucrative products to sell. Certainly, if you know a product will sell, just selling it must be the easiest work there is. Though that said, sales can vary depending on sales methods, so it’s not always that simple…
“By the way, today isn’t a delivery day, but did you need something?”
“Actually…”
I tell Machad that to sell cookies as a specialty product of this country, I want to add cookie sales as a food category to the Commercio Trading Company.
I had avoided getting into food sales until now because of the low margins and expiration dates limiting shelf life. But after deciding to distribute cookies nationwide at the tea party, I couldn’t say that anymore.
“Cookies?”
“Yeah, never had them?”
“No, unfortunately, I haven’t.”
Machad’s response surprises me. While there are no street stalls selling cookies, come to think of it, few handle sweets at all. With all my travel experience, I’m confident most street food stalls sell meat snacks, while those selling other things mainly deal in daily necessities and ingredients themselves.
Considering he’s the son of a commoner merchant, it makes sense Machad has never eaten cookies, which nobles have with tea as accompaniments.
“Wanna try some? Here.”
“Yes, gladly… nom nom. Th-this is… extremely sweet and delicious. The cookies are crispy yet melt in your mouth, and the size is just right. Even women can eat them in one bite, making them perfectly suited as tea accompaniments.”
I just happened to have some cookies made with the easy recipe I developed stored away, so I took them out. Machad starts concretely evaluating the taste like some gourmet reporter. As expected of a merchant’s son?
“For now, I’ll sell these at the Commercio Trading Company here and the Greg Trading Company in Orargrand I invest in. Then once the timing is right, I’ll transfer the actual recipe itself to the Commercial Guild and have them sell it.”
“You won’t monopolize it?”
“For business purposes, monopolizing would be standard, but this time the goal isn’t business – it’s spreading the product itself nationwide. If they give me a percentage of revenue from recipe sales, that should cover my capital.”
“While unsatisfactory as a businessman, if that’s your aim, it can’t be helped.”
As a merchant, having a lucrative opportunity taken by others seems to displease Machad, as he bites his lip and acquiesces. Normally information like this should be monopolized and kept secret, but for my goal of nationwide saturation, keeping it secret would prevent achieving that goal.
“For now, securing personnel takes top priority. Let’s go to the slave merchants.”
“Understood.”
And so, Machad and I headed to the slave merchants.
With the future direction decided, I immediately take action. First, I’ll make use of the cooperation promised by the people here.
“Lady Miralene, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Ohoho, no need to be timid. I won’t take such an attitude with someone who speaks to the queen as you did.”
“Then I’ll be direct. Among the nobles you’re acquainted with, how many are virtuous?”
“Let’s see…”
After thinking for a bit about my question, Miralene answered me in order of higher peerage.
“One marquis house, two count houses, four viscount houses, and six baron houses, I believe?”
“Then after this, I’d like you to appeal to those noble houses and have them cooperate after explaining our plan.”
“What exactly should they do?”
“It’s simple. I’m planning to transfer the rights to the cookie recipe served today to the Commercial Guild, and have them sell the recipe itself. Eventually, recipe sales will take place at all the Commercial Guilds in this country.”
“So anyone could buy and sell your cookies anytime, anywhere.”
“Of course, just doing that won’t speed up the spread of my cookies. That’s where cooperating with the nobles to distribute the cookies throughout the country comes in.”
By selling the recipe at the Commercial Guild, chefs will buy it. They’ll sell what they make using that recipe. That will gradually make my cookies known, but the spread is still expected to be slow.
So I’ll also sell the cookies myself, not just in the royal capital but also in the cities I’ve used as bases until now, to help diffusion of the cookies. Food businesses tend to have low margins and high volume, so the compensation for the labor is low, but for this cookie project, profitability can be ignored since the goal is saturating the country with them.
Of course, it’s meaningless as a business if it’s not profitable, but I think we can manage that by adjusting the pricing.
“Roland-chan, is there anything we can do?”
“Once recipes are on sale at the Commercial Guild, anyone can start selling cookies after buying one. At that time, you can recruit villagers to produce cookies and sell what they make.”
“Looks like we’ll be busy.”
“With that, I declare this tea party closed.”
After that talk, I saw off the royalty, Rosenbergs, Byreuses, and Malberts in order and gave the leftover sweets I had to the kings and family heads as gifts.
The people of this world, men and women alike, seem to love sweets, as the men’s faces lit up when given the treats. Of course, I waited until the women had returned to their rooms before giving them out. Can’t be negligent about that.
And so the eventful tea party somehow concluded without incident, but in exchange, I now had to work on a national scale. For now, I returned to the manor to clean up after the tea party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several days passed after that. The day after the tea party, exhausted mentally and subjected to Nagartinya’s hellish demands for more kisses, I accomplished nothing except beating her half to death.
The next day I holed up in the kitchen to develop an easy cookie recipe anyone could make, and somehow managed to complete it the day after that. Ruzzo’s assistance was crucial for that.
And today, after quite some time, I visited the Commercio Trading Company. While I had been dropping by when I found the time to check on things, Machad has considerable business acumen as the son of a merchant. Without me giving detailed instructions, just delivering goods and leaving sales and company management to him was plenty.
“Long time no see.”
“Rolando-sama! It really has been a while.”
“Sorry for leaving everything to you.”
“No no, this is easy work for me.”
Apparently just having to sell delivered goods is an easy job for Machad since I don’t make him source lucrative products to sell. Certainly, if you know a product will sell, just selling it must be the easiest work there is. Though that said, sales can vary depending on sales methods, so it’s not always that simple…
“By the way, today isn’t a delivery day, but did you need something?”
“Actually…”
I tell Machad that to sell cookies as a specialty product of this country, I want to add cookie sales as a food category to the Commercio Trading Company.
I had avoided getting into food sales until now because of the low margins and expiration dates limiting shelf life. But after deciding to distribute cookies nationwide at the tea party, I couldn’t say that anymore.
“Cookies?”
“Yeah, never had them?”
“No, unfortunately, I haven’t.”
Machad’s response surprises me. While there are no street stalls selling cookies, come to think of it, few handle sweets at all. With all my travel experience, I’m confident most street food stalls sell meat snacks, while those selling other things mainly deal in daily necessities and ingredients themselves.
Considering he’s the son of a commoner merchant, it makes sense Machad has never eaten cookies, which nobles have with tea as accompaniments.
“Wanna try some? Here.”
“Yes, gladly… nom nom. Th-this is… extremely sweet and delicious. The cookies are crispy yet melt in your mouth, and the size is just right. Even women can eat them in one bite, making them perfectly suited as tea accompaniments.”
I just happened to have some cookies made with the easy recipe I developed stored away, so I took them out. Machad starts concretely evaluating the taste like some gourmet reporter. As expected of a merchant’s son?
“For now, I’ll sell these at the Commercio Trading Company here and the Greg Trading Company in Orargrand I invest in. Then once the timing is right, I’ll transfer the actual recipe itself to the Commercial Guild and have them sell it.”
“You won’t monopolize it?”
“For business purposes, monopolizing would be standard, but this time the goal isn’t business – it’s spreading the product itself nationwide. If they give me a percentage of revenue from recipe sales, that should cover my capital.”
“While unsatisfactory as a businessman, if that’s your aim, it can’t be helped.”
As a merchant, having a lucrative opportunity taken by others seems to displease Machad, as he bites his lip and acquiesces. Normally information like this should be monopolized and kept secret, but for my goal of nationwide saturation, keeping it secret would prevent achieving that goal.
“For now, securing personnel takes top priority. Let’s go to the slave merchants.”
“Understood.”
And so, Machad and I headed to the slave merchants.
