Rachel's answer also confirmed Shado's guess. If elf merchants want to expand their business scale, they need to prove their strength on the one hand, and find a backer for themselves on the other.
Purchasing a manor from a high-ranking family to decorate the facade has become a very good choice. It not only proves one's strength (financial resources), but also provides oneself with a backer to some extent.
In Evereska, this kind of merchants are generally engaged in international trade. After all, Everesca's market is too small and it is easy to hit the ceiling.
This requires developing into a multinational chamber of commerce. In this process, it is almost impossible to lose the official support of Evereska, which is actually the support of the dozen or so high-ranking families.
But Evereska is not a powerful country in the world. Even with official support, the Everesca Chamber of Commerce may not be able to compete with foreign chambers of commerce.
Therefore, there have been a large number of ups and downs of chambers of commerce, which can also be regarded as the sad history of Evereska, a city-state, in its pursuit of external development.
However, Shado is not one of those businessmen. He does not need to consider the issue of capital turnover. He only needs to consider the relationship between the Great Xia Territory or Netheril and Evriska.
Given that the current international situation is generally peaceful, and both Evereska and Netheril are actively pursuing neutral development, it is almost impossible for the two countries to become enemies.
To take a step back, even if the two countries are at odds with each other, Evereska is unlikely to directly confiscate his property in Everesca. Chateau is quite relieved about this.
…
After the interlude, Rachel continued to introduce the Golden Maple Manor to Xia Duo:
"The main body of the manor is an ancient Mayerita-style holiday villa with complete internal facilities. There are also residences for servants, craftsmen, guards and other staff as well as several workshops. The main income of the manor currently comes from those workshops."
"What workshops are there?"
"The workshop involves sugar making, wine making, furniture, art decoration, etc. The raw materials are the maple trees outside the manor."
"I see, how much is the annual revenue?"
"The annual income is more than 200,000 hilmels, with an annual growth rate of almost 4%, but the expenses are also very high. The salary of the manor employees alone is close to 100,000 hilmels."
Everesca also issued its own currency, but the most commonly used currency among the people is the Comanzo currency, and Hilmel is the Comanzo gold coin.
1 Hilmer is converted into Netheril gold coins, which is about 1.2 to 1.5.
In other words, the annual net income of Jin Maple Manor from these workshops alone is about 150,000 (Nose gold coins), which is higher than the annual net income of the Savile Territory (including the Tower of Time) in the past!
It's no wonder that Nese merchants are keen to venture into the elven world.
However, the manor's annual revenue of more than 200,000 Hilmers accounts for nearly half of its expenses. This does not include the maintenance costs of the manor itself, and the actual net income will be discounted.
"If I replace the craftsmen in the workshop with humans, can I save more than half of the cost?"
"ah?"
When Rachel heard Xia Duo's remarks, she was almost stunned. She reacted and stopped her quickly, "No, my lord, the elf craftsmen are the guarantee of the quality of the products of the Golden Maple Manor. If it were replaced by humans, the salary expenses would be reduced, but the income would be reduced."
It will also be greatly reduced!”
"I was just joking, don't take it seriously."
In fact, Xia Duo was not entirely joking. If this manor was not a gift from the Jin Feng family but was purchased by himself, he indeed had the idea of replacing the elf craftsmen with humans.
Even if the quality is reduced, or simply the elf society does not recognize human products, you can put an elf manor brand on it and export it to Netheril, and your income may double!
Of course, this is purely from a business perspective.
If we consider the development of local industries and the penetration of elf culture, we cannot do this. Instead, we must vigorously promote human products and human brands.
Therefore, even if Xia Duo could now export the products of Golden Maple Manor to Netheril and make a lot of money, he would not do so.
…
“How much does it cost to maintain the estate each year?”
"This aspect is completely outsourced to the Vidas Workshop. The annual fixed expenditure is 24,000 Hilmers. The price is renegotiated every ten years. During the service period, the Vidas Workshop will respond to the call at any time.
Come to repair or maintain the magical facilities of the manor."
"Vidas Workshop?"
"Yes, Vidas Workshop is the top construction workshop in Everesca. If you are not satisfied, you can also change other service providers. However, the contract between the manor and Vidas Workshop is still there.
Two years later, if we terminate the contract early, we will need to pay liquidated damages."
"No need to change, I just have some impression of the name."
The Everesca street light advertising renovation project was undertaken by Vidas Workshop. If you have the ability to win municipal engineering projects, maintaining a manor will certainly not be a big problem.
Anyway, there are only two years left in the contract period, and the worst-case scenario is to change service providers by then.
However, Xia Duo's impression of Vidas Workshop is quite good. This is mainly due to the impression he left when he visited the street lamp renovation site before. The team sent by Vidas Workshop is professional and efficient enough, and it doesn't even feel like...
Elf.
All the street lights in Evereska City were renovated in a short period of time. The advertisement of the Tower of Time Void Warehouse was able to be posted so quickly thanks to the Vidas Workshop.
The landmark building he is currently (arranging for designers to) design to hold the New Style Art Exhibition will be handed over to Vidas Workshop if nothing else happens.
This is the role of first impression. If this workshop does not do anything outrageous in the future, Xia Duo may give them priority wherever they can be used.
…
From the history of the manor's architecture and decoration to the habits of the maple trees outside the manor, Rachel introduced it in every detail. It's a pity that the time agreed by designers such as Chateau and Ikeguita was a bit tight, otherwise it would have been a good tour to listen to it all.
experience.
"We'll introduce the rest next time. Now take me to the conference room!"
"Yes, sir."
…
In the conference room, the thirteen contracted designers were sitting upright. Seeing this, Xia Duo felt a little funny. It was just that he was so restrained in a formal meeting occasion.
It’s no wonder that these thirteen designers are either unable to fit into the mainstream design world or lack abilities. The most important thing is that they can all accept propositional design under human leadership.
If they were famous mainstream designers, they probably wouldn't come here to be used by Chateau.
"Everyone, it's been a week. Do you have a plan?"
"We already have a preliminary plan, please take a look at it, Lord Xia Duo!"
With that said, Ikjita handed the plan to Shado as a representative.