Chapter 142 Harold: Let's do smuggling
"Magic crystal blocks are unaffordable for most people. They are probably only used by big businessmen and high-ranking officials of the Church of God," Dolly replied.
When it comes to the minerals of Teyvat, Harold had no good advice to give. He put a few hot water bottles back into the wooden box and opened another box.
This time he took out a few folded raincoats.
"It's thicker than I thought. Instead of directly molding the rubber into raincoat cloth, they applied rubber liquid onto the cloth?" Haroldt asked, also placing them on the upside-down lid of the box.
"I tried to make the kind of rubber transparent raincoat you mentioned. According to your ideas and design drawings, that kind of raincoat is indeed lighter and more beautiful.
However, producing large areas of ultra-thin rubber cloth is a difficult point, and production is another major difficulty - during the production process, such a thin rubber cloth can easily tear or melt and stick to the base of the sewing machine.
Although I managed to make some finished products, their quality was far from meeting the marketable standards, and in my opinion, it was impossible to mass-produce it without improving the raw materials and using pure rubber alone. "
Dolly shook her head helplessly and continued:
"Next, I will ask the scholars of the Sulun School to use alchemy to blend other substances into rubber to make a tougher synthetic rubber cloth.
But they are too busy now. I recently assigned them a task to research synthetic fibers, and recently asked them to make alloys. In addition to the scholars of the Sulun School that I sponsored, I also hired more than a dozen scholars. Why are they still short of manpower?
My friend, the research speed of these scholars can no longer keep up with the speed at which your wonderful ideas come out. However, I plan to recruit another group of people recently. I will always be waiting for your new ideas next time!"
"Okay, you are my best business partner," Haroldt smiled and unfolded the raincoats in his hands. After a brief appreciation, he folded them up again and put them back in the box.
"Although it's a bit thick, it's designed so it won't be too stuffy... But the design of the rain cape also has a big flaw: when it rains heavily, it's hard not to get your trouser legs wet."
"Cheap and high performance can't coexist," Dolly spread her hands, revealing her innocence. "Unless the scholars of the Sulun School can quickly create synthetic rubber so that I can mass-produce the two-piece raincoat with pants you mentioned, this transparent rubber raincoat will ultimately be a luxury that only a few people can enjoy."
"Don't be in a hurry. We need to take our time. You should also give them more time," said Haroldt.
Dolly: "A wise businessman will never send immature goods to the market, so you can rest assured!"
Then, Harold opened the next box, which contained rain boots. Dolly had made several types, including low-top, high-top, low-tube and long-tube. Some styles were obviously for daily wear by residents, while others took into account the needs of special staff such as plantation owners and forest rangers, and were more practical than aesthetics.
Harold mainly looked at the soles of these rain boots. Dolly chose alloys, animal bones, elemental biological remains and other materials to make this batch of samples. These materials can all be used and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Residents can choose the style that suits them according to their actual situation.
Then he looked at the elastic band (super deluxe version), which did not have synthetic fibers. Dolly used the hair of the Hilltop King as a substitute, and the effect was quite good.
Haroldt pulled the elastic band like a pressure reducer, testing its elasticity, and said, "These products are still some way from being on the market, right?"
Dolly: "My plan is to officially launch the product in three years. By then, the rubber forests I have contracted will have produced a batch of rubber, and the prices of these products will be much lower. Then I can charge a little more Mora on top of the raw material price, and everyone will be able to accept that."
"I hope you can supply my senior by then. If our project progresses smoothly, we will need more rubber tires in the future."
Dolly: "I can supply you at cost price!"
Harold's mouth corners rose unconsciously: "If you are so sincere to me, then I will introduce you to a business that can make a lot of money."
"Make a lot of money?!...Hehe, Mora!" Dolly's eyes immediately widened when she heard this, and her little face, which always seemed sleepy, finally became energetic.
"Let's smuggle paper books and sell them to the desert." Harold invited Dolly to form a team.
Dolly was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect Harold to take such a risk. After all, in her opinion, Harold was different from her. He was not someone who liked to take risks for Mora.
But she was stunned for a second, and immediately said: "Okay! The greater the risk, the greater the reward. I'll tell you secretly that my caravan will also secretly sell the books to the desert, or sell them to the Gilded Brigade that comes to the port of Omos.
Paper books are scarce, and the House of the Holy Orders has extremely strict control over books. I can't get many paper books.
If the desert people could understand the languages of other countries, I would be willing to buy some books from other countries and transport them directly to the desert by water. Unfortunately, the desert people are poorly educated and most of them cannot even write their own language. "
Harold: "So you actually sold the books to the tribal leaders. The tribal leaders have the best resources in the entire tribe. Most of them know the common language of Xumi and can read some books. But they use knowledge as a threat to suppress all dissenting voices.
——I have never been to the desert, but I made this guess based on the unintentional words of several desert friends. Am I right?"
Dolly: "Books and knowledge are also a tool for them to maintain their rule. Just like the 'falcons' they keep in captivity, they crave knowledge just like they crave an oasis.
When they came across rare books, they would share the knowledge with their most loyal and closest subordinates, just as they would distribute limited food and water.
This is what the businessmen I have worked with have seen in the desert. They have traveled back and forth between the rainforest and the desert many times, and all of them have given the evaluation that "a tribe of dozens of people is actually a small Xumi city."
In fact, most of the desert tribe leaders are more corrupt than the top leaders of the Order Council. Their absolute power in the tribe has corrupted them.
However, this abnormal way of survival is largely due to the special terrain and severe lack of resources in the desert after the fall of the Red King. Most desert people can survive under the rule of tribal leaders by relying on oases and establishing employment relationships with scholars.
In such a harsh environment, they learned to build their own caravans according to the working model of rainforest merchants. Even the most closed village of Aru, where a group of desert people who claimed to be the last descendants of the Red King and isolated themselves from the world for a hundred years, recently opened their doors to welcome caravans from the rainforest.
As for me, I can earn a lot of shiny Mora from it. As a businessman, I cannot interfere with what happens there. I don’t hate those tribal leaders very much. In my opinion, anyone who can give me Mora is my good partner. "