The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 290 Business
The reason why Llane was in such a hurry to return to Meereen was that the investment conference was about to begin. After all, if these four city-states no longer had slaves to sell, the existence of the city-states would become a problem. In the TV series, the Dragon Queen caused a large-scale rebellion because she abolished the slave trade but did not find a substitute. Llane was now in a hurry to recommend new products as a substitute for slave exports.

Fortunately, with the support of industry and supernatural power, new products were quickly produced. When Ryan returned to Meereen, he could see the former slave estates that had become collective farms, where countless freed slaves worked hard and planted all kinds of magical plants from the world of Plants vs. Zombies.

In the city hall of Meereen, the officials' reports also showed a thriving scene. The freed slaves found new jobs, and the magical plants brought enough food, vegetables and textile raw materials for everyone. Under this circumstance, the city-state showed a thriving scene. However, these officials also told Ryan that most of the warehouses had been filled with newly produced goods, and now they needed to be sold urgently.

The most popular product now produced in the area controlled by Ryan is coinage, with the help of various metal-absorbing plants. Ryan obtained enough gold and copper from the copper mines near Meereen, and also found a lot of silver mines in the mountains in the east and refined silver.

So Ryan established a mint in Meereen, using steam engines to drive mechanical stamping machines to produce currency. This industrially produced currency has a stable precious metal content, and each coin is the same size, regular shape, and clear lines. It is much better than those coins that are hammered out by hand with molds, and it has been loved by merchants as soon as it was launched.

After the currency was made, he established a bank for currency exchange and financial services. Every day, countless people can be seen going to the bank to exchange their own currency for the new machine-made currency.

In order to avoid hostility, Ryan also invited people from the Iron Bank to invest. As long as there was money to be made, the Iron Bank did not mind Ryan setting up a bank, and taking this opportunity, the local mechanical coinage began to become popular in the world.

Of course, this is only because he is not strong enough now. It is hard to say what will happen to his business when he becomes stronger in the future.

But apart from the gold coins that everyone loves, other product recommendations need some publicity. So on the second morning after returning to Meereen, after waking up Rose Crystal to go to work at the temple, Ryan washed up and flew to the highest pyramid on a broomstick to prepare for the midday product exhibition and lunch banquet.

Ryan didn't like living in this pyramid because he really didn't like this house without an elevator, water, or electricity. Besides, as a person from modern society, living in a high place didn't bring him any pleasure. So after occupying the city, these big pyramids were used as exhibition halls and hotels for foreign investment.

After the exhibits were arranged, the businessmen who were called in also climbed up the Great Pyramid one after another, panting. Ryan expressed his sincere admiration for these businessmen who climbed the stairs to more than 50 floors of the office building. But it seems that they are not dissatisfied with this, and many businessmen are even very grateful to Ryan for inviting them to hold a meeting in this magnificent building.

When they came up, they had already seen the products that Ryan was going to display on the lower floors, and now they came up in the hope of obtaining the sales rights of these products.

In order to avoid competition, Ryan launched products that were not available in other regions. For example, soap, matches, copperware, mirrors, refined salt, various spices, canned seafood, and various exquisite jewelry produced by the four city-states in the east of Slaver Bay. At the same time, there were candles, lamp oil, mechanical clocks, lighters, porcelain, various civilian iron products, spirits, and sugar produced in the Laza region and transported along the Skazadan River.

The only regret is that due to the high demand for livestock products in the two worlds, the livestock products originally produced in the Laza region are now not enough for export. These dazzling goods immediately conquered the merchants who came here to purchase slaves. Under the temptation of money, they did not mind what was in their ships. Before, they complained about stopping the slave trade. But now, each of them praised Ryan's slave liberation cause.

Soon, these merchants began to subscribe for shares of goods under the auspices of Ryan. Naturally, many merchants did not have enough money. At this time, people from the Meereen Bank came forward to lend them money.

Although Ryan thought that the monthly interest rate of 10% was too high, which was equivalent to an annual interest rate of 120%, all the merchants were happy to borrow money from Ryan. After listening to their discussion, I realized that these merchants were not qualified to borrow money from the Iron Bank, and the high-interest loans from other places were more expensive.

After all the business was discussed, the lunch started. With the introduction of cooking methods from several worlds and a large amount of spices available, the food on the table was so delicious that the merchants almost swallowed their tongues.

There was a small incident during the banquet. Rose Crystal skipped work from the temple and showed up at the banquet a few minutes before everyone had eaten. After pulling Ryan's hair and complaining that she was not invited to the banquet, she sat at the table next to Ryan and started to enjoy the lunch together. Soon, the plates on the table flew to Rose Crystal. After eating heartily, she grabbed Ryan's napkin, wiped her hands and mouth, and left happily humming a song.

After Rose Crystal left for a while, the merchants who had been suppressed by the power of God and had fallen to their knees on the ground finally got up, trembling and pale. Before, they had only heard that the Lazarin people had launched a war of revenge and annexed four slave city-states after they had a new god, but they never expected that a real god would appear.

Now most merchants are full of confidence in their business. With the blessing of the gods, the Lazarin people will surely rule this land for a long time, and what merchants like most is a stable society. However, a few guys who wanted to owe money and not pay it back resolutely gave up this idea. After all, they saw the close relationship between the new king of the Lazarin people and the gods. In this case, the gods coming to collect debts are much more terrible than the faceless men coming to collect debts.

The day after the investment promotion conference ended, the officials reported a good news to Ryan, that is, the circulation of goods that had been stagnant for several months due to the war had finally resumed, and more merchant ships were expected to come here in the next quarter.

At the same time, under the intimidation of Rose Crystal, these merchants are willing to lead local caravans to other cities. On the one hand, setting up business stations in other cities is conducive to product sales, and on the other hand, it is also conducive to collecting more extraordinary information. At least after conquering these slave city-states, Ryan obtained a lot of information about blood magic and shadow magic.

After dealing with government affairs for a few days, it was September of the year 297 of the Aegon calendar. This was the time when the Dothraki started to go south to rob. According to tradition, they would definitely send a large group of people to the Laza wilderness to rob. Llane planned to return and take advantage of the Dothraki concentration to kill several large groups.

After instructing the political officer and the commander of the garrison, Ryan, with the rose crystal on his shoulders, boarded the steamer back to the Laza area amid a group of people's farewell.

(End of this chapter)