Chapter 226: 226
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As for Qiao Wangye, he runs a well-known multi-purpose shop that sells everything from foreign goods to packaged sweets. Due to limited shop space and the need to expand at a later date, only high-quality goods are sold there so it acquired a reputation for quality soon after. The prices range from prices only the nobility could afford to low prices that any commoner could easily fork over. One would think with so much foot traffic and money being passed around that the crime rate was high. However, due to the founder's Wangye status and his relationship with Jun Wangye, soldiers and constables patrol that place frequently. Organized crime syndicates try to steer clear of that place and the few muinor thieves that manage to get in are usually caught by the mercenary guards employed at the front door. And, perhaps because he's a Wangye and therefore has a lot of money to spare, he doesn't take advsntage of craftspeople that are permitted to sell their wares in his store. He adds a fee to sell in the shop on top of the market price of their goods so they're almost always paid the amount they should get. It certainly makes handmade crafts expensive but the attention to detail of humans and the steady hands of proffessionals can never be beat. For those that do take personal requests, the shop has their information so if a customer wishes, they can contact the craftspeople personally. His policy of not exploiting the makers that work tirelessly behind the scenes makes him quite popular and aligns with Shen Tianyu's policy of no worker exploitation. Sure such a policy might drive prices up but in the long term, the workers will be more loyal to your brand and will be more than likely to stick through you during tough times. One person can't run a big business after all, they'd die from overwork. The most important thing in a business is not money but trust. No matter how much money you offer, if you're not trustworthy, people will have their guard up and not want to sell to you.
Though he is a great bussinessman, the one major flaw that even babies know about, is that he's a complete womanizer. Whenever he's at one of his stores, doing an inspection or taking care of some paperwork, he'd always flirt with the women there, whetehr they be workers or customers. It never quite gets to the point of sexual harrassment but it definitely draws attention. As long as the woman is not clearly married, he'll try to hit them up. Though he technically has morals since he doesn't try to flirt with married women, but people have said that he'll still send them winks. The men know they'll never win so they almost never bring their daughters or fiancees there unless absolutely necessary. And they always try to get out of the shop as quickly as possible whenever he's there. There are also occassianlly trashy nobles that try to pick up girls there but they always cross the line and end up gettin tossed out.
...
Qiao Wangye made an appointment by sending over one of his men to arrange a date of inspection with Wu Linghao. He was put in charge of managing the partnership with Qiao Wangye while Shen Tianyu tried to write up an official proposal with Yamen Mengxiao. Sicne she wasn't good with writing in brush and ink, Yanmen Mengxiao was primarily in charge of that. It would be unseemly to have a messy looking proposal with uneven characters after all. Shen Tianyu did take time out of organizing to at least give Wu Linghao an outline of how to get Qiao Wangye to agree, without threatening him of course. He was a Wangye so it would be dangerous to use her old tactics. If deemed a threat, he could easily bar them from the kingdom or name them as criminals and have them captured and that would definitely not be good. Even if she wasn't hit as hard because of being Rong Jian's fiancee, it would sour the relationships between the brothers. Being engaged to a political figure had it's fair share of difficulties.
After that, she was cooped up in the Manager's Office with Yanmen Mengxiao working on the proposal they were going to submit to the Emperor. This was where Rong Jian finally became handy. The court officials would surely reject a proposal by a merchant without even listening to the title so having a Wangye submit it would at least force them to listen to the reasoning. Though the Emperor had absolute power, it is the court officials that make things happen and manage various parts of the domain. If they sowed dissent within the people of their domain, it will be troublesome for the Emperor should they rebel. Not to mention some nobles had ties with cultivational sects or organizations so he couldn't just make them do whatever he wanted. Even if the Emperor wanted to implement the policy, the court officials also had to vote. The Emperor technically did have the finals say and could order them to carry out the policy regardless of whether they agreed but that was undesireable for the long-term of an Emperor's rule. The court officials could intentionally create hiccups in the process or have their connections cause problems. Court officials can be the pettiest of them all and petty people are always a pain to deal with. Therefore, they had to have someone "reputable" submit and talk about the policy in their place, which in this situation would be Rong Jian. Then, they vote for whether they should implement it and the Emperor makes the final decisions and arrangements.
...
"Haaah... Finally..." Shen Tianyu slumped down on the wooden couch without a care in the world as she let out a long sigh. It was God Day and they were finally done with the proposal after rushing it for 5 days and nights straight. Too bad there was no morning court today since it was a break day for the officials. They can only have the proposal submitted tomorrow, on Solar Day. Writing a proposal may sound simple but that could not be farther from the truth. That was especially so for political policies of an imperial world. They had to summarize all their surveys and findings and arrange for witnesses that would speak on their behalf and testify that their results were indeed true and not fabricated. Of course, that wasn't all they were supposed to do. They were also to garner support for the policy, usually by talking about their own struggles which they believed the policy would solve and how it would be beneficial to the court officials. The latter part is supposed to be more subtle. Unfortunately, there are always a lot of nobility that only care for their own self-interest and don't actually mind if the country were burned to the ground as long as they could live in luxury. There's no denying that there are selfless court officials that wouldn't lay their lives down for their country but those are few and far between. Then, they had to detail what the policy would do, how it should be implemented, how much it would cost, who would cover part of the cost if any and why they would do so. They also had to detail how the policy would, or was supposed to work, after the initial implementation in addition to naming the department that would be in charge of it. If you wanted a higher chance of it getting accepted, you also needed to name the ministry and it all needed to be correct. For example, you can't put a policy about defensive measures during time of war under the Ministry of Personnel. The moment that was read, more than half of the court officials would have spoken up to reject it without hearing the rest. Someone who can't even research how the Three Departments and Six Ministries worked and what they were in charge of had no business sticking their noses in national politics.
"That took way longer than I was expecting..." Yanmen Mengxiao slumped over the desk with the finished proposal, looking like the manuscript for a long novel or even a series, next to his arms.
"I thought it would take at least a day but I didn't think it would take this long..." It was the first time for both of them to write up an official policy proposal. They kept calling Rong Jian over to check if the format was right and rewriting it. They haven't called on him since Wood Day, three days ago, though. Because they were in the middle of talking out a partnership with Qiao Wangye, if it wasn't already done, they were rushing to have the new policy implemented so they could start producing enough chocolates for sale. There were no machines in this world so all the chocolates were made by hand, that was one of the reasons why they were so exclusive. good thing they weren't perishable and had enough time to train new chocolate chefs. The basic recipe wasn't hard and that was going to be what they were planning to sell to the ones in poorer economic status. The more difficult recipes, like truffles and such, were made by the top chefs and would be at the price range only accessible to the nobility for the foreseeable future.
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As for Qiao Wangye, he runs a well-known multi-purpose shop that sells everything from foreign goods to packaged sweets. Due to limited shop space and the need to expand at a later date, only high-quality goods are sold there so it acquired a reputation for quality soon after. The prices range from prices only the nobility could afford to low prices that any commoner could easily fork over. One would think with so much foot traffic and money being passed around that the crime rate was high. However, due to the founder's Wangye status and his relationship with Jun Wangye, soldiers and constables patrol that place frequently. Organized crime syndicates try to steer clear of that place and the few muinor thieves that manage to get in are usually caught by the mercenary guards employed at the front door. And, perhaps because he's a Wangye and therefore has a lot of money to spare, he doesn't take advsntage of craftspeople that are permitted to sell their wares in his store. He adds a fee to sell in the shop on top of the market price of their goods so they're almost always paid the amount they should get. It certainly makes handmade crafts expensive but the attention to detail of humans and the steady hands of proffessionals can never be beat. For those that do take personal requests, the shop has their information so if a customer wishes, they can contact the craftspeople personally. His policy of not exploiting the makers that work tirelessly behind the scenes makes him quite popular and aligns with Shen Tianyu's policy of no worker exploitation. Sure such a policy might drive prices up but in the long term, the workers will be more loyal to your brand and will be more than likely to stick through you during tough times. One person can't run a big business after all, they'd die from overwork. The most important thing in a business is not money but trust. No matter how much money you offer, if you're not trustworthy, people will have their guard up and not want to sell to you.
Though he is a great bussinessman, the one major flaw that even babies know about, is that he's a complete womanizer. Whenever he's at one of his stores, doing an inspection or taking care of some paperwork, he'd always flirt with the women there, whetehr they be workers or customers. It never quite gets to the point of sexual harrassment but it definitely draws attention. As long as the woman is not clearly married, he'll try to hit them up. Though he technically has morals since he doesn't try to flirt with married women, but people have said that he'll still send them winks. The men know they'll never win so they almost never bring their daughters or fiancees there unless absolutely necessary. And they always try to get out of the shop as quickly as possible whenever he's there. There are also occassianlly trashy nobles that try to pick up girls there but they always cross the line and end up gettin tossed out.
...
Qiao Wangye made an appointment by sending over one of his men to arrange a date of inspection with Wu Linghao. He was put in charge of managing the partnership with Qiao Wangye while Shen Tianyu tried to write up an official proposal with Yamen Mengxiao. Sicne she wasn't good with writing in brush and ink, Yanmen Mengxiao was primarily in charge of that. It would be unseemly to have a messy looking proposal with uneven characters after all. Shen Tianyu did take time out of organizing to at least give Wu Linghao an outline of how to get Qiao Wangye to agree, without threatening him of course. He was a Wangye so it would be dangerous to use her old tactics. If deemed a threat, he could easily bar them from the kingdom or name them as criminals and have them captured and that would definitely not be good. Even if she wasn't hit as hard because of being Rong Jian's fiancee, it would sour the relationships between the brothers. Being engaged to a political figure had it's fair share of difficulties.
After that, she was cooped up in the Manager's Office with Yanmen Mengxiao working on the proposal they were going to submit to the Emperor. This was where Rong Jian finally became handy. The court officials would surely reject a proposal by a merchant without even listening to the title so having a Wangye submit it would at least force them to listen to the reasoning. Though the Emperor had absolute power, it is the court officials that make things happen and manage various parts of the domain. If they sowed dissent within the people of their domain, it will be troublesome for the Emperor should they rebel. Not to mention some nobles had ties with cultivational sects or organizations so he couldn't just make them do whatever he wanted. Even if the Emperor wanted to implement the policy, the court officials also had to vote. The Emperor technically did have the finals say and could order them to carry out the policy regardless of whether they agreed but that was undesireable for the long-term of an Emperor's rule. The court officials could intentionally create hiccups in the process or have their connections cause problems. Court officials can be the pettiest of them all and petty people are always a pain to deal with. Therefore, they had to have someone "reputable" submit and talk about the policy in their place, which in this situation would be Rong Jian. Then, they vote for whether they should implement it and the Emperor makes the final decisions and arrangements.
...
"Haaah... Finally..." Shen Tianyu slumped down on the wooden couch without a care in the world as she let out a long sigh. It was God Day and they were finally done with the proposal after rushing it for 5 days and nights straight. Too bad there was no morning court today since it was a break day for the officials. They can only have the proposal submitted tomorrow, on Solar Day. Writing a proposal may sound simple but that could not be farther from the truth. That was especially so for political policies of an imperial world. They had to summarize all their surveys and findings and arrange for witnesses that would speak on their behalf and testify that their results were indeed true and not fabricated. Of course, that wasn't all they were supposed to do. They were also to garner support for the policy, usually by talking about their own struggles which they believed the policy would solve and how it would be beneficial to the court officials. The latter part is supposed to be more subtle. Unfortunately, there are always a lot of nobility that only care for their own self-interest and don't actually mind if the country were burned to the ground as long as they could live in luxury. There's no denying that there are selfless court officials that wouldn't lay their lives down for their country but those are few and far between. Then, they had to detail what the policy would do, how it should be implemented, how much it would cost, who would cover part of the cost if any and why they would do so. They also had to detail how the policy would, or was supposed to work, after the initial implementation in addition to naming the department that would be in charge of it. If you wanted a higher chance of it getting accepted, you also needed to name the ministry and it all needed to be correct. For example, you can't put a policy about defensive measures during time of war under the Ministry of Personnel. The moment that was read, more than half of the court officials would have spoken up to reject it without hearing the rest. Someone who can't even research how the Three Departments and Six Ministries worked and what they were in charge of had no business sticking their noses in national politics.
"That took way longer than I was expecting..." Yanmen Mengxiao slumped over the desk with the finished proposal, looking like the manuscript for a long novel or even a series, next to his arms.
"I thought it would take at least a day but I didn't think it would take this long..." It was the first time for both of them to write up an official policy proposal. They kept calling Rong Jian over to check if the format was right and rewriting it. They haven't called on him since Wood Day, three days ago, though. Because they were in the middle of talking out a partnership with Qiao Wangye, if it wasn't already done, they were rushing to have the new policy implemented so they could start producing enough chocolates for sale. There were no machines in this world so all the chocolates were made by hand, that was one of the reasons why they were so exclusive. good thing they weren't perishable and had enough time to train new chocolate chefs. The basic recipe wasn't hard and that was going to be what they were planning to sell to the ones in poorer economic status. The more difficult recipes, like truffles and such, were made by the top chefs and would be at the price range only accessible to the nobility for the foreseeable future.
As for Qiao Wangye, he runs a well-known multi-purpose shop that sells everything from foreign goods to packaged sweets. Due to limited shop space and the need to expand at a later date, only high-quality goods are sold there so it acquired a reputation for quality soon after. The prices range from prices only the nobility could afford to low prices that any commoner could easily fork over. One would think with so much foot traffic and money being passed around that the crime rate was high. However, due to the founder's Wangye status and his relationship with Jun Wangye, soldiers and constables patrol that place frequently. Organized crime syndicates try to steer clear of that place and the few muinor thieves that manage to get in are usually caught by the mercenary guards employed at the front door. And, perhaps because he's a Wangye and therefore has a lot of money to spare, he doesn't take advsntage of craftspeople that are permitted to sell their wares in his store. He adds a fee to sell in the shop on top of the market price of their goods so they're almost always paid the amount they should get. It certainly makes handmade crafts expensive but the attention to detail of humans and the steady hands of proffessionals can never be beat. For those that do take personal requests, the shop has their information so if a customer wishes, they can contact the craftspeople personally. His policy of not exploiting the makers that work tirelessly behind the scenes makes him quite popular and aligns with Shen Tianyu's policy of no worker exploitation. Sure such a policy might drive prices up but in the long term, the workers will be more loyal to your brand and will be more than likely to stick through you during tough times. One person can't run a big business after all, they'd die from overwork. The most important thing in a business is not money but trust. No matter how much money you offer, if you're not trustworthy, people will have their guard up and not want to sell to you. Though he is a great bussinessman, the one major flaw that even babies know about, is that he's a complete womanizer. Whenever he's at one of his stores, doing an inspection or taking care of some paperwork, he'd always flirt with the women there, whetehr they be workers or customers. It never quite gets to the point of sexual harrassment but it definitely draws attention. As long as the woman is not clearly married, he'll try to hit them up. Though he technically has morals since he doesn't try to flirt with married women, but people have said that he'll still send them winks. The men know they'll never win so they almost never bring their daughters or fiancees there unless absolutely necessary. And they always try to get out of the shop as quickly as possible whenever he's there. There are also occassianlly trashy nobles that try to pick up girls there but they always cross the line and end up gettin tossed out. ... Qiao Wangye made an appointment by sending over one of his men to arrange a date of inspection with Wu Linghao. He was put in charge of managing the partnership with Qiao Wangye while Shen Tianyu tried to write up an official proposal with Yamen Mengxiao. Sicne she wasn't good with writing in brush and ink, Yanmen Mengxiao was primarily in charge of that. It would be unseemly to have a messy looking proposal with uneven characters after all. Shen Tianyu did take time out of organizing to at least give Wu Linghao an outline of how to get Qiao Wangye to agree, without threatening him of course. He was a Wangye so it would be dangerous to use her old tactics. If deemed a threat, he could easily bar them from the kingdom or name them as criminals and have them captured and that would definitely not be good. Even if she wasn't hit as hard because of being Rong Jian's fiancee, it would sour the relationships between the brothers. Being engaged to a political figure had it's fair share of difficulties. After that, she was cooped up in the Manager's Office with Yanmen Mengxiao working on the proposal they were going to submit to the Emperor. This was where Rong Jian finally became handy. The court officials would surely reject a proposal by a merchant without even listening to the title so having a Wangye submit it would at least force them to listen to the reasoning. Though the Emperor had absolute power, it is the court officials that make things happen and manage various parts of the domain. If they sowed dissent within the people of their domain, it will be troublesome for the Emperor should they rebel. Not to mention some nobles had ties with cultivational sects or organizations so he couldn't just make them do whatever he wanted. Even if the Emperor wanted to implement the policy, the court officials also had to vote. The Emperor technically did have the finals say and could order them to carry out the policy regardless of whether they agreed but that was undesireable for the long-term of an Emperor's rule. The court officials could intentionally create hiccups in the process or have their connections cause problems. Court officials can be the pettiest of them all and petty people are always a pain to deal with. Therefore, they had to have someone "reputable" submit and talk about the policy in their place, which in this situation would be Rong Jian. Then, they vote for whether they should implement it and the Emperor makes the final decisions and arrangements. ... "Haaah... Finally..." Shen Tianyu slumped down on the wooden couch without a care in the world as she let out a long sigh. It was God Day and they were finally done with the proposal after rushing it for 5 days and nights straight. Too bad there was no morning court today since it was a break day for the officials. They can only have the proposal submitted tomorrow, on Solar Day. Writing a proposal may sound simple but that could not be farther from the truth. That was especially so for political policies of an imperial world. They had to summarize all their surveys and findings and arrange for witnesses that would speak on their behalf and testify that their results were indeed true and not fabricated. Of course, that wasn't all they were supposed to do. They were also to garner support for the policy, usually by talking about their own struggles which they believed the policy would solve and how it would be beneficial to the court officials. The latter part is supposed to be more subtle. Unfortunately, there are always a lot of nobility that only care for their own self-interest and don't actually mind if the country were burned to the ground as long as they could live in luxury. There's no denying that there are selfless court officials that wouldn't lay their lives down for their country but those are few and far between. Then, they had to detail what the policy would do, how it should be implemented, how much it would cost, who would cover part of the cost if any and why they would do so. They also had to detail how the policy would, or was supposed to work, after the initial implementation in addition to naming the department that would be in charge of it. If you wanted a higher chance of it getting accepted, you also needed to name the ministry and it all needed to be correct. For example, you can't put a policy about defensive measures during time of war under the Ministry of Personnel. The moment that was read, more than half of the court officials would have spoken up to reject it without hearing the rest. Someone who can't even research how the Three Departments and Six Ministries worked and what they were in charge of had no business sticking their noses in national politics. "That took way longer than I was expecting..." Yanmen Mengxiao slumped over the desk with the finished proposal, looking like the manuscript for a long novel or even a series, next to his arms. "I thought it would take at least a day but I didn't think it would take this long..." It was the first time for both of them to write up an official policy proposal. They kept calling Rong Jian over to check if the format was right and rewriting it. They haven't called on him since Wood Day, three days ago, though. Because they were in the middle of talking out a partnership with Qiao Wangye, if it wasn't already done, they were rushing to have the new policy implemented so they could start producing enough chocolates for sale. There were no machines in this world so all the chocolates were made by hand, that was one of the reasons why they were so exclusive. good thing they weren't perishable and had enough time to train new chocolate chefs. The basic recipe wasn't hard and that was going to be what they were planning to sell to the ones in poorer economic status. The more difficult recipes, like truffles and such, were made by the top chefs and would be at the price range only accessible to the nobility for the foreseeable future.
