Chapter 635: Chapter 42: Smith’s Million Gold Coin Deal and the Gray Market Trading Company’s Invitation_3

Hearing this, Su Li took a deep breath. These Lanode believers really know how to swindle money; providing equipment to the army—corruption incurred a cost of 300 Golden Crowns!

What does 300 Golden Crowns mean? It could buy an estate and over 200 acres of vast fertile land in the Hesse Territory!

Just selling one more could buy an Elite Knight and dozens of Armed Attendants to guard my home.

Know that all this is profit from the cost of one item! He hasn’t paid any price.

The key is, as the Chairman of the Equipment Manufacturing and Production Committee, as long as he manipulates things from within, it’s impossible to report only 1-2 items falsely; at least it starts from 100 items!

items, him opening his mouth means 30,000 Golden Crowns!

And according to the production capacity of the Hesse Territory, if they ship 3,000 sets of armor here annually, he’d earn nearly 1 million Golden Crowns from Marle Castle.

This 1 million Golden Crowns is the profit he earns without doing anything, just by secretly allocating funds.

Su Li envied and twitched; it has to be them, the committee members, who can earn millions of Golden Crowns just by talking.

Su Li, with thousands of slaves, worked to death growing crops at Jorn Shallow Bay; each season, the income amounted to only around 4,000 Golden Crowns. This is merely income, not profit. After deducting the slaves’ food and drink as well as the investment of Divine Magic by the Dawn Nun, the profit might only be between 2,000 and 3,000 Golden Crowns.

And even the most wealth-creating industrial manufacturing in the Hesse Territory, according to Senator Smith’s quote, one item is merely dozens of Golden Crowns. But this income has to pay salaries to over 800 Dwarves and bear the cost of ores. Although Star Silver Iron isn’t as exorbitantly priced as Vibranium, it’s still a High Tier rare metal with limited quantities. If demand increases, he also has to import from Gray Mountain Dwarves to meet production needs.

More crucially, the Hesse Territory must bear significant risks. If the City Lord discovers that a large quantity of equipment from the Hesse Territory is subpar, sold as Refined Level Star Iron Armor instead of Fine Level Armor.

Then the Hesse Territory will inevitably bear the wrath of the Legendary Knight. The City Lord might be wary of Smith’s backing and won’t do anything, but Su Li will be the scapegoat once things are exposed.

Su Li decisively smiled and said, "How can I enjoy such a good thing alone! Benefits must be shared, I only want a selling price of 80 Golden Crowns. And I’m not responsible for transporting to Marle Castle, only selling to Gray Market Trading Company. As for how you operate afterwards, I won’t ask."

Su Li wanted to extricate himself from this transaction.

In this way, even if Senator Smith’s corruption is exposed, Marle Castle won’t find issues with Su Li logically or emotionally.

The Gray Market Trading Company likes to buy some non-compliant items from all over the world; they sell the equipment to Commissioner Smith, what’s that got to do with Su Li?

To take a step back, it’s normal for Su Li to do business with any trading company. As for these pieces of equipment being sold by the company to knights for killing, or sold to senators as military supplies, that’s the company’s decision.

Never heard of knights killing with a sword, and the killed party not seeking revenge on the knight but seeking revenge on the merchant who sold the sword to the knight, right? Going further, finding the artisan who produced the weapon is even more unreasonable.

But this could allow the Hesse Territory to gain stable equipment profits. Last year’s year-end meeting, Oliver talked about it; this year’s equipment prices would fall sharply. This deal could keep the territory’s equipment at an unprecedentedly high value. And no worries about sales, just produce freely. The dwarves will surely be enthusiastic.

And after listening to Su Li’s proposal, President Roger of the Gray Market Trading Company did not have Su Li’s avoidance mentality, as he was already bound with Senator Smith, and completely fearless of the risks in this project.

Thus, he was very excited; for him, this was simply a windfall, standing up eagerly, extending his hand to Su Li, "My good brother, the Gray Market Trading Company won’t forget your generous share this time."

In fact, businesses prefer not the high-risk, high-reward projects, those are what gamblers like.

As the top level of the trading company, what they appreciate most is the stable income projects. Buying as much armor can be sold entirely, no need for hoarding, no need to consider sales. Each piece of armor they handle steadily earns a profit of 20 Golden Crowns, and a year means 60,000 Golden Crowns!

Moreover, this is 60,000 Golden Crowns without capital mortgage and without the risk of unsold inventory, no less than earning 100,000 Golden Crowns from speculative trading.

Smith felt slightly dissatisfied with Su Li’s slippery escape tactics, but knowing the unique position near Dragon Rock Forge that brought him tens of thousands of Golden Crowns in revenue, he opted for temporary patience.

The reputation of Dragon Rock Forge and Gray Mountain Dwarves are the most important aspect of his secret dealings, and no one is more suited than Bauhinia Knight. Besides, their equipment gained recognition in Marle Castle last year, fitting this plan perfectly.

He also knew initial connections might hold back, so standing up, he smiled at President Roger and said, "Our Bauhinia Knight has given you such a big benefit, as the owner of Marle Castle, you should take good care of our newly joined little brother."