Chapter 173

In the carriage, Lucas sat with his eyes closed, pondering. He recalled the information about Joe from Annie's notebook: Joe was a local in the royal capital, descended from nobility but fallen into decline, later turning to merchant.

Joe had a keen vision and wasn't rigid or traditional. He was someone willing to take risks. In just a short span of 20 years, he had transformed from a fallen noble descendant into a wealthy man, amassing a fortune of a thousand gold coins.

In Lucas's view, Joe was a highly successful businessman and a promising partner. Building a merchant team wasn't easy, especially in Sedona City where few people had been to the royal capital, and fewer still understood commerce.

For Lucas, venturing out to establish trade routes or to the royal capital wasn't feasible at the moment. Sedona City needed him to stay in charge, especially with winter approaching.

Moreover, Sedona City hadn't yet developed to the point where it needed him to expand trade routes. So, his current approach was to find an existing merchant team to cooperate with. This was the quickest and most suitable method.

Now, Lucas was about to test whether Joe was a suitable business partner or not. What Lucas valued most was Joe's team's transportation capacity.

"Clip-clop."

"My Lord, we've arrived at the workshop."

Lucas stepped out of the carriage and saw Joe standing nearby, observing curiously with attentive ears, catching the distinct sound of clacking.

"City Lord, this is a workshop?" Joe asked curiously, wondering about the nature of the workshop, especially when he saw the patrols and guards stationed at the workshop's entrance.

"Yes, this is the workshop area of Sedona City." Lucas nodded. He was already planning the city's urban zoning, with this southern area of Sedona City marked for industrial use, where all major workshops would be located.

Joe's eyes narrowed slightly at this. There were many workshops here, and workshops were a core source of income for a city. Bringing him here indicated that there was something important.

"Annie, take me to the linen warehouse." Lucas turned to Annie. He had visited Sakura City when Annie established the workshops.

"Yes."

Annie led the way, and soon they arrived at the linen warehouse. The gatekeeper opened the door, and they entered.

"Hiss…" Upon entering, Joe sucked in a breath of air, his eyes trembling as he gazed at the densely packed linen on the shelves.

Lucas's lips curled up slightly as he glanced at Joe's reaction. He asked Annie, "How much linen do we have here?"

"Young Master, we have 200 bolts of bottom-grade linen, 100 bolts of lower-grade linen, and 2 bolts of medium-grade linen." Annie said with her notebook in hand.

"And what's the daily production?" Lucas asked calmly.

"We can produce 40 bolts of bottom-grade linen and 20 bolts of lower-grade linen per day." Annie quickly replied.

Joe was stunned. He doubted his ears. A bolt of linen was 30 meters long. Producing 60 bolts a day was like a money machine. In the royal capital, linen fetched 30 copper coins per meter. By this calculation, the daily income would be 54 silver coins, or one gold coin every two days. At this rate, it wouldn't take long for Lucas to earn a sum far from his current assets.

[1 Copper coin = 10 Steel coins]

[1000 Copper coins = 1 Silver coin]

[100 Silver coins = 1 Gold coin]

The potential growth in production volume startled Joe. The fact that someone else might only need some year to catch up with his 20 years of hard-earned income was unbelievable to him.

"The production volume is still too low. We need to aim for over a hundred bolts of lower-grade linen per day." Lucas shook his head in dissatisfaction.

"Young Master, the workers we recruited today are still undergoing training. It will take a few more days before they can work, and then the production volume should exceed a hundred bolts per day in a few weeks." Annie said seriously.

Joe shivered. Over a hundred bolts a day meant earning gold coins daily. In just over a year, he could earn a few hundred gold coins. And this was only the workshop's income, not the territory's income.

He was truly astounded. If this got out, the noble families would act like bandits, and even the king might be tempted.

Therefore, Joe was afraid of being silenced. Though he didn't understand why linen could be produced so quickly, the linen in this warehouse couldn't possibly be fake.

"Sir Joe, what do you think of the linen here?" Lucas pulled out a bolt of lower-grade linen from the shelf and showed it to Joe.

"Huh?" Joe touched the linen and was amazed at its quality. It was at the level of middle-grade linen, the type worn by merchants.

"My Lord, are all the linens here of this quality?" Joe asked with a trembling voice.

"Of course not. This is lower-grade linen; over there are the bottom-grade linens." Lucas moved to another shelf and pulled out a bolt of linen.

Phew… Joe let out a sigh of relief. This linen was what commoners wore. If all of them were the so-called lower-grade linen like what he had just seen, the prices he speculated would have doubled.

"City Lord, I don't quite understand. Is the production volume you mentioned earlier true? Hundreds of bolts of linen per day?" Joe boldly voiced his doubts.

"Yes," Lucas nodded. He didn't plan to reveal the spinning jennies and looms just yet. He changed the subject. "Sir Joe, how about you handle the sales of these linens for me?"

"What?" Joe widened his eyes in disbelief.

"I have the goods, but forming a merchant team takes too much time. Therefore, I need a partner right now." Lucas calmly stated.

"Really?" Joe's eyes nearly bulged out in surprise. He pointed to himself, his voice trembling, "City Lord, are you asking me to cooperate with you?"

"Yes, I value your transportation channels." Lucas replied straightforwardly.

"Understood." Joe nodded decisively. He had also considered this point. Otherwise, why would he be sought out for a linen business that could earn at least a thousand gold coins a year?

"Then let's discuss the profit distribution." Lucas smiled and went directly to business.

"No, City Lord. I only need 5% of the profit," Joe immediately stated. While 5% wasn't a lot, it was still considerable earnings.

He was betting on the future. Joe didn't believe Lucas would settle for his current status quo. Moreover, if they could cooperate on other goods as well, 5% would actually be quite substantial given the scale.

"You're bold. Trust me, you won't regret today's decision." Lucas smiled confidently. He had been prepared to argue for a bit and was ready to give 5% of the profit. But he didn't expect Joe to lower the share. He was happy that he chose the right person for business.

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Meanwhile In the restaurant a child was looking for his father and the child's name was Dale.

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