The truth is brutal.

Outside the warehouses of the Pasquier family's textile factory, Bordeaux's artisanal owners and traders of all sizes stand in an airtight open space in front of the door. Everyone wondered why the Pasquier family was able to sell cotton cloth at such a low price, even if it was only the lowest-grade white cotton.

Some of the larger traders and textile millers have entered the warehouse, and they are negotiating with Julian of the Pasquier family. Those who remained outside the door were some small and medium-sized traders and small textile workshop owners, who felt that they were not qualified to have a dialogue with the interests represented by Pasquier at the first time, so they could only stand outside the door and wait for news.

They waited anxiously as they exchanged gossip from various sources with the people around them.

"I heard that two ships under the name of the elder Pasquier bound for Madras were sunk in a storm, and he owed a lot of money. Therefore, in order to recoup the funds, he began to sell a large amount of cotton cloth, and this hateful guy completely disrupted the market. An old man with gray hair grumbled endlessly.

"But I've heard that he's selling a cotton cloth called 'East Coast Cloth' that has never been seen in Bordeaux." Another young businessman was puzzled, "Actually, this is the first time I've heard of this 'East Coast Cloth', how can it be so cheap?" Where is this made? India or China, or Africa? ”

"It's not India, it's not China, and certainly not Africa, which is still in the dark!" A middle-aged man in his forties said. Dressed in a cheap new Italian woolen gown with slightly weathered temples, he looked like a small and medium-sized businessman who had been working hard all year round.

"'East Coast Cloth' is produced in the East Coast Republic of China in the New World, and the quality is very reliable, and the price is incredibly low." The middle-aged merchant continued, "I have inquired, and now the Pasquier family has more than fifty thousand of these 'East Coast Cloths' in their treasury, and they seem to be full of energy and ready to play a big one. ”

"Fifty thousand?!" A group of small and medium-sized businessmen were stunned, and the textile workshop owners next to them were even more pale.

"Bordeaux consumes just over 50,000 cotton wool in a year, so what does old Pasquier want to do? What about the big guys? Why don't you come out and stop them?! They were encroaching on the interests of the merchants of the Kingdom of France. A workshop owner shouted indignantly.

"Is there going to be a repeat of the Indian cotton invasion more than 20 years ago? Pasquier Sr. was the first warrior in Bordeaux to stand up to the Indian cotton cloth, but now he has betrayed us? A merchant recalled the invasion of the French market by the British East India Company's re-export of Indian cotton cloth.

"The invasion of cotton cloth in India led to the bankruptcy of fifteen handmade textile factories in the Bordeaux region. This time things look worse than they were back then, God, I took over from my father this workshop that has been passed down for more than 50 years, and I don't want it to be destroyed in my hands, it will make me feel uneasy! A businessman was a little emotional, and it could be seen that the turmoil had had a great impact on him.

"What about Mr. Ludwig?" Someone suddenly asked, "Mr. Ludwig is a ...... Belch...... An upright man, he also has a textile factory under his name that employs more than 30 people, and he will not sit idly by and watch such an infringement on everyone's interests happen. ”

"Monsieur Ludwig went to Marseille and was told that he was dealing with some business disputes. But I'm not sure how long it will take him to get back to Bordeaux, maybe a few days, maybe two weeks, who knows. ”

"Two weeks later, my employees and I are starving to death!"

"God, burn these demons!"

Just when there was a lot of noise outside, the door of the warehouse, which had been closed for a long time, finally opened. Several middle-aged men in elaborate dresses walked out, followed by a large number of servants. These men turned pale, and after taking the top hats handed by the servant, they didn't say much, but walked straight outside. And at the door of the warehouse, there are Julian of the Pasquier family and his servant Michelle, as well as two guys who look like oriental faces.

The merchants and workshop owners were very discerning and saw that the negotiations between the two sides had broken down, and that the textile guild was already in a de facto split. At this time, it is time for them to make a painful choice.

Those small and medium-sized traders are the most entangled at this time, they have too little useful information to make a clear enough judgment about the road ahead. Although they don't have a lot of stock on hand, and it's easy to turn around, they don't dare to make the decision of which side to go towards. Maybe one day the government or the textile guild will issue a decree prohibiting the sale of East Coast cloth or imposing high tariffs on East Coast cloth, and if they buy East Coast cloth, they will be in the same predicament as the local cotton cloth they have now - they will not be able to sell it at all.

But if this matter can't be won or lost for a while, then this East Coast cloth can be sold all the time, and let yourself watch others make money, how aggrieved it should be. If those businessmen who speculated early took the opportunity to occupy the market, how would they mix in the future? These businessmen were entangled and entangled, and they couldn't make up their minds for a while, so they had to look around for someone to find out the news.

Xu Xin sat at a table in the warehouse, playing with a quill in his hand. Sitting next to him was a tall, thin man with a pale face, Mo Ming, a veteran spy from the National Intelligence Administration. They had just joined Julian in this round of consultations, with other senior members of the Textile Guild and their trading partners.

As a result, the negotiations broke down completely, and the positions of the two sides could even be said to be completely opposite. The other party demanded that the Pasquier family should no longer sell East Coast cotton cloth at the current low price of "disrupting the market", and that the price of East Bank cloth must be raised to more than 12 sous. In view of the fact that "thousands" of cotton cloth had already entered the market, the Pasquier family had to compensate the other cotton producers and traders for the damages, and the amount of compensation was decided by a meeting of the textile guilds.

"To put forward such insulting conditions, which almost call for the total surrender of our eastern coast, can I say that these French guys are all broken?" Mo Ming, who was wearing a wide-brimmed beaver top hat, said playfully, "Or are they confident and ready to solve us by some means?" ”

"They are the original vested interests, and they have irreconcilable contradictions with us. Cooperation is impossible, we must now keep an eye on each other's next moves, and don't be overshadowed by others. By the way, although I can't control you 'spies', I advise you to keep a low profile in Bordeaux. Xu Xin frowned and said, "A lot of people are staring at us. The first thing to do is done by Pasquier and other agents, and we just keep a low profile and make a fortune ourselves. You're not familiar with the place here, and I don't want anything to happen to you. ”

Mo Ming smiled and said casually, "Of course." There is no such thing as a free lunch, and since Julian wants to sit on the ground and share the money, of course he has to take the corresponding responsibility. Don't worry, we're just gathering some intelligence and developing some local informants, and we're not going to do any 'wet work'. Of course, with our current strength, we can't do some 'wet work' if we want to, hehe. ”

Xu Xin frowned in disgust. He was very uninterested in intelligence agents, and always felt that these sinister guys were not good people. Moreover, he subconsciously thought that this was a kind of unease on the part of the Executive Committee about his work, which was a very bad feeling.

"Forget it, I don't want to do that." Xu Xinli sighed, stood up and walked to Julian's side at the door, and said, "Julian, my friend." These are the first enemies in our way, and we are now acting like a snatch from their mouths, and I would find it strange if they didn't react violently. Therefore, we must strengthen our confidence and take the opportunity to speed up sales efforts and defeat them in one fell swoop. ”

"Yes, that's right." Julian looked coldly at the backs of these people and whispered, "The capacity of the market in the short term is limited. Bordeaux consumes only 50,000 horses a year, and we can put up to 26,000 pieces of high-quality cotton cloth on the market in a short period of time, even if only some of them are sold locally in Bordeaux, then it is enough to saturate the local cotton market in a short period of time. It is up to the artisanal owners and the cotton traders who have stockpiled large quantities of old goods to do what they do, and the cotton cloth they have on hand will undoubtedly be in a state of unsalable. I want to see what it feels like to have a large amount of goods smashed in my hands and not be able to sell them. ”

"Maybe they're going to overreact in some way?" This is what Xu Xin is most worried about.

"Don't worry, the Textile Guild is out of their control." Julian said confidently: "There is no need to worry about the government and the tax officer, no one will come to us for trouble, you can even be exempted from paying customs duties, Baron Loris still has this ability." What else can they do? No, they can't do anything! The only thing they can do is to be desperate like a wretched worm to dispose of the unsalable goods at a lower price than we have. ”

"I hope so." Xu Xin said softly, "The sales in the morning were not bad, more than 200 horses were sold piecemeal, and 8,000 horses were sold wholesale. Just now I saw that some of the big traders were not as resolute as the textile factory owners, and they might be the ones to be wooed, but we just need to redivide the pattern of interests. Well, it's still a while until the afternoon opens, Julian, why don't you have a drink? ”

"Okay, bring me a glass of brandy."

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