Chapter Thirty-Seven: Loss-Making Deal

  The price last year was ten taels of gold for one piece, and the current market price is around twenty taels per piece, a difference of nearly double. Lukas was overjoyed, as he had originally planned to spend 200,000 taels of gold to buy 10,000 pieces of Shu brocade. Liu Ze unexpectedly proposed using 100,000 taels to buy porcelain and another 100,000 taels to buy Shu brocade, which meant that by spending the same amount as before, he would get an additional 10,000 high-quality porcelain pieces for free. Wasn't this like having a pie fall from the sky? He almost couldn't believe it: "Really?"

  "A gentleman does not speak lightly." A merchant's most valuable asset is his reputation, and Liu Ze would hardly dare to make a joke of it.

  "Deal!" exclaimed Lukas with glee.

  Liu Zei saw that the purpose of this trip had been achieved, stood up to bid farewell, but Lukas insisted on hosting a banquet for them. Liu Zei couldn't decline and had no choice but to stay.

  The banquet was grand and luxurious, with roasted whole sheep to eat and Persian fine wine to drink. There were also beautiful Persian women performing belly dances, and the cups were constantly being exchanged. Before they knew it, it was already time for the evening lamps to be lit. Seeing Liu Ze showing great interest in the Roman armor hanging on the wall, Lukas immediately ordered someone to take it down and give it to Liu Ze. Liu Ze was overjoyed, as the Roman armor was exactly what he had been dreaming of. After a few words of polite refusal, he accepted it.

  As the wine reached half of its intoxication, Liu Ze and Lu Kacz talked with great pleasure. Liu Ze inquired in detail about the customs, geography and products of Western Regions, Persia and Rome. As they chatted, he suddenly thought of something and asked Lu Kacz if there was a golden pheasant tree south of Egypt, and described its shape to him in detail.

  Liu Ze asked Lukas about the Golden Chicken Nest Tree, not out of curiosity, but because in ancient times malaria was almost an incurable disease, frequently breaking out on a large scale and claiming countless lives. Liu Ze knew that the only effective medicine for treating malaria was the Golden Chicken Nest Frost.

  The Cinchona tree originated in South America, where it was first discovered and used by the Incas. It wasn't until the 17th century that it was introduced to Europe. Now going to South America is undoubtedly a pipe dream, but Liu Ze didn't give up. The Cinchona tree has been living on Earth for at least tens of millions of years. According to Wegener's continental drift theory, Africa and South America were once connected, with identical geographical environments. Based on the characteristics of the Cinchona tree growing in tropical high-altitude areas, Liu Ze determined that it must be distributed in central Africa. Going to Africa himself is not very realistic now, but Lukacz often travels to Egypt for business, perhaps there's a chance to see the Cinchona tree.

  But Luka shook his head and said, "Egypt is all desert, there are no trees at all. However, it's said that thousands of miles south of Egypt, it's always summer and never winter, with plenty of rain throughout the four seasons, and towering trees everywhere, perhaps there's the kind of tree you're talking about."

  "Not bad, I was referring to this place. Since someone knows about this place, they must have been here before. After Mr. Lukas arrives in Egypt, he can spend a lot of money to buy the bark of this tree. Someone should be willing to go south to find it." Liu Ze saw hope and was naturally willing to spare no expense.

  "There must be brave men under the heavy reward. The people of that tribe are very poor and it's not hard to find those who are willing to go south, but Mr. Liu needs to clearly describe the shape, color, smell and other characteristics of this bark, otherwise I won't be able to recognize it, what if the goods don't match and we end up wasting our money?"

  "This is natural." Taking out paper and pen, Liu Ze not only wrote down the shape of the golden chicken but also drew a few pictures to hand over to Lukas.

  On the way back, Jian Yun asked Liu Ze in puzzlement: "Master, the market price of Shu brocade is already 20 taels of gold per piece, but you gave it to Lukas for 10 taels per piece. Isn't that selling 10,000 pieces of Shu brocade for 200,000 taels of gold? Wouldn't those 10,000 pieces of porcelain be given away for free?"

  Liu Ze smiled and said, "Xianhe, don't you think this deal is a big loss?" Jian Yong and Liu Bei were of the same age, and last month he had just come of age and taken the style name Xianhe.

  "Anyway, I don't see where he made a profit." Jian Yun couldn't understand Liu Ze's approach.

  "On the surface, it seems like we're losing out on this deal, and badly at that. The porcelain worth 100,000 taels of gold was given away for free, and you saw how Lukas was grinning from ear to ear. But do you know why I still chose to sell it despite knowing it's a loss?"

  "Dim-witted and foolish, surely Master must have a deeper meaning."

  "Lucas is a shrewd businessman, he won't do this deal without some sweetener. Without him, we can't open up the Roman market. The Shu brocade will be out of stock next year, which means we'll have no business to do next year, so we must find new goods to sell. This is why I insisted on not giving a discount on porcelain but giving a 50% discount on Shu brocade. Next year when there's no more Shu brocade to sell, Lucas will definitely come crying and begging to buy porcelain, and then won't we be making money?"

  "My lord, why are you so certain that porcelain will be popular in Rome?" Jian Yun was puzzled as to why Liu Ze was so confident that these blue and white porcelains would sell well.

  Liu Zexin smiled to himself, if the Romans looked down on these porcelain, then China would have to change its name, it couldn't be called "A" anymore. However, this matter couldn't be told to Jian Yuming, he only said: "Westerners have an extraordinary infatuation with porcelain, especially high-end porcelain. This time, Lukas brought porcelain into Rome and will surely cause a sensation among the Roman nobility. Next year's porcelain sales will definitely be astonishing."

  In the following days, Liu Ze cleared up the Shu brocade and porcelain, received twenty million taels of gold, and then left Luoyang to head north to Quyang.

  Before leaving, Liu Ze specially reminded Jian Yong: "Xianhe, all the Shu brocade in stock can be shipped out now. The more the better, no need to keep inventory. Next month, a new batch of porcelain will arrive, and you will rent a store near Fuyuanzhuang to specialize in selling porcelain. As for the sale of coal stones, it is currently off-season, but we must ensure sufficient supply to places such as iron shops and kilns. After summer, we will set up markets to sell coal stones in the northern provinces, counties, and larger county towns, striving to cover all counties in the north with our coal sales network by next year."

  "In this case, our manpower will inevitably be insufficient." Jian Yun's concern was not unreasonable.

  "I've thought about this issue for a long time. We are short-handed, so we can develop agents. Each county and each district sets up one specialized company to wholesale to them at 60-70% of the price, let them do retail business, and we only do wholesale business."

  Jian Yong exclaimed with great joy: "What you said is absolutely right, in this way we don't need enough shops to do business all over the world."

  He nodded and said, "To maximize benefits is not a monopoly, give benefits to others and let them benefit you. Only in this way can business be done bigger and better. Remember, for businessmen, honesty is the foundation, do not be greedy for small gains, only then can the path of commerce become wider and wider, otherwise, being insatiably greedy and forgetting righteousness will only lead to walking into a dead end."

  Everything went smoothly, and on this day they arrived at Zhongshan, only half a day's journey from Quyang. It was already near noon when Liu Ze ordered the convoy to rest and have lunch at a small roadside shop, planning to arrive in Quyang by evening.

  Just as they were eating, the sound of horseshoes came from outside the store, people shouting and horses neighing, with dust flying everywhere. Liu Ze furrowed his brow and said, "Isn't there a group of bandits outside?"

  As soon as he heard there were horse thieves, Zhang Fei jumped up and excitedly said: "Horse thieves? Just what I needed, my fists are itching, let's go and meet them." Without even inviting Liu Ze and Guan Yu, he rushed out directly.