Chapter 217 — The Founding of the Cecil Chamber of Commerce

Before today, Padrick had never imagined that an alchemical potion could be packaged and sold by the "crate."

How were alchemical potions packaged and sold? Ordinary small merchants never even bothered to think about it, for every alchemical item was the product of supernatural power. The so-called magical goods that the humblest peddlers loaded onto their carts amounted to no more than a few iron plates etched with runes and some dried sheepskin—things whose chief function was psychological comfort, advertised with the slogan "My grandmother swore this works." True alchemical potions were a trade only merchants of the middle and upper ranks could afford to touch.

And even those merchants, on a single trading run or a single stockpile, could at best get their hands on a dozen or so bottles of alchemical potion. These were set in exquisite crystal vials, cushioned with velvet and fine silk wadding, and then laid each in its own delicate wooden case—priced at roughly the same as the most expensive wine.

It was said that a renowned mercenary master had once been commissioned to slay a mutated magical beast menacing the frontier. Relying on his extraordinary skill and a dozen bottles of alchemical potion, this mercenary wore down and killed an enemy three times his strength—only to glance back at the empty bottles he had flung to the ground after his victory, and drop dead on the spot with a strangled "gak"...

The story was surely exaggerated, and merchants used their over-ornate packaging for alchemical potions precisely to inflate the price before nobles who knew no better and raw mercenary greenhorns—yet the sheer preciousness of alchemical potions was still plain to see. But now Gao Yang had had several great crates brought in; the crates were opened, and inside they were packed full of alchemical potions, neat little crystal vials bedded all around with wood shavings to prevent breakage.

"Three layers to a crate, 233 bottles to a layer. This crate is minor mana potion, this one is remedy compound, and the rest of these crates are all rejuvenation potion," Gao Yang said, pointing out the great crates as he briefed Padrick, then produced a sheet of paper. "The specific prices and the profit-sharing arrangement are here—take a look. I've provisionally set the price of rejuvenation potion at sixty Cecil copper coins, or one Ansu shield-shaped silver coin; mana potion at two shield-shaped silver coins; remedy compound the same as rejuvenation potion."

Padrick took the price list somewhat dazedly, and at the figures Gao Yang reeled off he blinked, seeming for a good while unable to grasp what connection these prices bore to the potions before him.

Only half a minute later did he venture, hesitantly: "Your Grace... are you... are all these potions genuine?"

"Do you take me for a peddler of fake medicine?" Gao Yang's eyebrows went up. "Of course they're genuine! It's simply that I have a special method by which I can produce potions at very low cost."

"My lord, I would never doubt your character!" Padrick said at once, very nervously. A vast bewilderment had arisen in his heart. In all honesty, no one could keep his composure before such low prices and the fact that Gao Yang could casually conjure up piles of alchemical potions—behind it lay wealth on an unimaginable scale. Yet Padrick was a clever man; bold where money was concerned, he was cautious where his life was. So he probed no deeper secrets, and instead took the potions Gao Yang had produced as an established fact for his analysis. "Since you truly can supply potions in such quantities... then I do have some thoughts."

Gao Yang nodded. "Go on. You have experience in commerce."

Padrick came straight to the point: "My lord, I want you to water down these rejuvenation potions."

At these words, not only was Gao Yang stunned, but even Amber, who had tagged along to serve as a piece of background scenery, started—and a moment later the half-elf lady looked Padrick up and down with an expression of admiration. "Sir, you are a talent..."

"Don't add to the chaos," Gao Yang shot Amber a glare, then fixed his eyes on Padrick's. "You should know this suggestion is no honest merchant's way. You must have something else you want to say."

"Yes, my lord. Water down the rejuvenation potion and rename it 'lesser healing potion' or 'inferior healing draught'; the remedy compound can be handled the same way, renamed 'lesser remedy potion' and so on. If you think this offends against knightly honor, then simply lower the price a little further—cut the price and declare that these potions fall short of true alchemical potions in efficacy, and it is no longer deceit. For the injuries and ailments that the vast majority of common folk meet in daily life, even such inferior healing draughts are enough to save their lives. However watered-down an alchemical potion may be, it is still far better than the foul-smelling salve of mud and rotted grass roots they buy from village herbalists."

Padrick watched Gao Yang's expression warily, and the latter merely nodded. "Continue. I'm listening."

"To recklessly sell alchemical potions like rejuvenation potion at rock-bottom prices will inevitably batter the existing market, and batter the groups that profit by it. True, a 'new chamber of commerce' with a duke at its back can look down on those petty merchants and petty alchemists, but a gutter rat, even if it cannot bite a man to death, can still make him sick. And for the common folk, being able to buy alchemical potions cheaply is not necessarily a good thing—at least not at the outset. Those hurt by the new chamber of commerce may be powerless against you, but they can turn their hatred on those 'presumptuous' poor folk; they can threaten those who want to buy medicine, attack those who already have, or simply slip poison into the market and then spread rumors—for most ignorant common folk cannot tell at all whose hand it is that has harmed them."

Here Padrick lowered his head slightly and added, cautiously: "My lord, you are mighty, but even a valiant lion must beware of venomous vermin."

Gao Yang kept his expression largely unchanged, but the look he turned on Padrick now carried a hint of surprise. After a few seconds he gave a slight nod. "You're right. To avoid that, we shall make some 'disguises.'"

"Yes—disguises not especially clever. So long as you declare that these are inferior, even failed, by-products of alchemical brewing, the eyes fixed on them will more than halve. You can sell the true rejuvenation potion and remedy compound at the same time, but raise their prices somewhat—they can still undercut the potions on the market, only do not slash them all at once to a few dozen copper coins. That way the traditional merchants will be lulled for a time; they will think only that you mean to grab a little market with a temporary low price, or that you have found a cheap source of herbs. And by the time they come to their senses... they will be powerless."

"In this way you successfully establish your trade routes and avoid drawing the eyes of the ill-disposed too early. And even the common folk who buy the watered potions will have bought, at a price they can bear, potions that work—far better than the mud and rotted grass roots they use day to day. They will be profoundly grateful to you."

Gao Yang made no reply, but murmured to himself, touched: "So for the poor, even buying a bottle of good medicine is a sin..."