CHAPTER 283: CHAPTER 208: HAVING IDEAS IS NOT A BAD THING_3

This should be Harano’s fault. During the famine, Harano ordered the opening of iron fields all over the Chita Peninsula, even finding several small riverbed iron sand deposits. They dug out iron sand that nature had accumulated over thousands and tens of thousands of years, leading to iron prices in Wanjin dropping off a cliff on the spot.

At the same time, after disaster relief, in order to recover quickly, Harano ordered the "State-Owned Iron Workshop" to sell various ironware at low prices. As a result, the market became nearly saturated for a time, and small private iron workshops like theirs just couldn’t handle it—Endo Chiyoda’s ironware orders kept getting lower in price month by month, and the quantity she wanted also decreased every month. They had a whole workshop full of people to feed too!

That’s why they banded together, planning to end their consignment contract with Harano and see if they could sell their goods farther afield by themselves, to make a bit more money.

They really had no other choice...

Ah Man’s brows arched, already sure that he was up to something, and her gaze turned dangerous. She said mercilessly, "You should be glad you’re making anything at all! If it weren’t for Wanjin, even if you shat in the river, there wouldn’t be a bubble of oil. Now you think you’ve got some skills and want to go solo? Let me tell you, there’s got to be a limit to ingratitude..."

"Shut up!" Harano, annoyed by her interference, pulled her aside and spoke gently to Hirajima Yoshichiro, "You don’t need to listen to her. I understand what’s going on now. Honestly, I hadn’t considered this issue before, but with your current abilities, trying to transport and sell your goods farther away on your own would be really difficult and dangerous, wouldn’t it?"

He paused to think, then continued, "How about this: I’ll talk things over with Miss Endo later, and see if we can set up a separate sales point for you at Atsuta Port. What would you think of that?"

"But the iron prices at Atsuta Port are also very low. All the money goes to those wealthy merchants, and there’s no way we can outsell your workshop—your prices are lower than ours..." Hirajima Yoshichiro said instinctively, but at once realized himself, glancing at the warm look on Harano’s face, and suddenly felt embarrassed—were they being too greedy, sounding more and more ungrateful as they went on?

It’s true, without Harano, he’d either still be a family slave, or would have died an untimely death. Now Harano allowed them to earn money and live in peace, and yet they kept nitpicking, thinking the profits weren’t enough. That was really greedy, and if they got killed for it, they had it coming.

And after saying all these things and making such requests, he’d run out of courage. He quickly changed his tune, nodding repeatedly: "Your Highness, you’re right. I think that’s great... Let’s do it as Your Highness says!"

As soon as he finished, he stood up to take his leave. "Your Highness, I beg your pardon. I won’t take up any more of your time."

"No rush, and we don’t have to do it just how I said." Harano had been busy with disaster relief, then with shipbuilding and territorial expansion. He really hadn’t paid much attention to commerce these last two years. He pondered, "Let me think this over first. I’ll talk it over with you and the others later."

"Yes, yes! I wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare!" Hirajima Yoshichiro just wanted to get out of there quickly, having lost all focus on what Harano was saying. He hurriedly responded and left the private room.

Ah Man watched him leave, then turned to Harano and asked, "Want me to deal with those people?"

Harano glanced at her, speechless, and said, "Take it easy. This isn’t a bad thing!"

Unknowingly, the industrialists and merchants of Wanjin had developed too. He hadn’t really noticed before. Maybe now that things are quiet, it’s time to pay them more attention.

It’s not a bad thing for these people to have their own ideas. The development and founding of Wanjin isn’t something he can do alone.