The most prosperous area of Aosta City is still the most prosperous place even after being devastated by the war.
The Aosta City Municipal Hall is located in the inner castle of Aosta near the north of the city, so the center of the city is where merchants and shops gather. There are two horizontal and two vertical streets on both sides of the street: taverns, hotels, silverware shops, cloth shops, tailor shops, leather shops, and weapons shops. Shops, blacksmith shops, carpentry workshops, breweries, bakeries, medical shops, fur shops, grain shops, butcher shops, and even stalls set up on both sides of the street selling vegetables, fruits, pottery, wooden bowls, firewood, rattan ropes, etc., all kinds of shops imaginable are here.
It's just that now compared to when it was at its peak, the shops were not too big and the types of goods sold were not that many.
However, at the intersection of several streets, a tall square castle-style building is particularly dazzling. This building is built with three floors of stone bricks, with a towering spire and large colorful glazed windows. The exterior walls are also painted with white ash. The first floor is surrounded by shops on all sides, and the second and third floors are the administrative offices of various guilds in Aosta City.
The building does not occupy a large area, with a length and width of less than a hundred feet, but both the building materials and decorations are very luxurious. Of course, only the various guilds that control the lifeblood of a place have such strong financial resources.
The Provence headquarters of Continental Commercial Bank is located in this building. The entire bottom of the building belongs to Continental Commercial Bank. The row of shops also has the Continental Commercial Bank signboard and store flags. Next to Continental Commercial Bank is the largest treasury (bank) in eastern Provence.
In addition, there are several official rooms on the second floor of the building that were rented by Salter as the company's administrative offices.
When Ate and the others came to the luxurious building on horseback, Salt, the general manager of the Continental Trading Company and commercial officer, had already led a group of people to wait in front of the flag signboard of the Continental Trading Company on the first floor of the building.
There is no shortage of elites in any era. What is lacking is the soil that creates elites. Art has always believed in this sentence.
Perhaps even Sarthe himself never thought that one day he would be able to become the head of a guild with a territory in the entire eastern Provence and a powerful business manager spanning two states, but he did it.
From the initial five carriages led by Art himself to now having hundreds of carriages, more than a hundred attendants and more than ten branches and shops, all of this is inseparable from Salt's efforts, but he also knows that all of this is because someone opened the road with a blade in front of them.
Sart walked quickly from a long distance to lead Art's horse and greet him.
"Sir, thank you for arriving in Aosta these two days. I will go to the central part of Provence to purchase weapons and armor in two days." Salt knew in advance that Art would secretly explore the south of the valley, and if things went well, he would also go north from the south to inspect the European trading houses. However, it was impossible to predict when he would arrive in Aosta, so he had already planned to go to the central area of Provence in two days to purchase weapons and armor on a large scale.
The Continental Trading Company mainly dealt in expensive southern goods, but the war in the North has not yet subsided, and now the sales channels for southern goods have been temporarily blocked. In order to maintain the operation of the Continental Trading Company, Art planned to go to Provence to purchase a large amount of weapons and armor after discussing with everyone.
Weapons, armor, food and supplies are most scarce and valuable during wartime, but now that the war in Provence has been completely extinguished, as the conscripted armies are being demobilized, a large number of weapons and armor made during the war are also accumulated in arsenals in various places. In peacetime, weapons and armor not only cannot fill the stomach and wear warm clothes, but also require energy to repair and maintain (iron tools are very easy to rust), which is really a burden. Therefore, many lords who were in urgent need of money to rebuild their territories were willing to take out the piles of scrap metal in their arsenals and exchange them for shiny gold cakes and silver coins.
It happened that the Burgundy County in the north was in civil strife at this time. Both the east and west sides recruited a large number of soldiers to expand their armies. However, the arsenals on the east and west borders obviously could not supply enough weapons and armor, so the weapons and armor abandoned by the lords of Provence became something in short supply in the north.
Att and Salt discussed using the goods hoarded in European trading houses to exchange for weapons and equipment in the hands of lords across Provence, and then transport them to the north for sale. This is also the main task of the European Commercial Bank in the future, and Salter will personally handle it.
In order to show respect for Salt, Art immediately jumped off his horse and walked side by side with him. "Sart, you have to hurry up about purchasing weapons and armor. The war in the north will not last long. Both the east and west borders need to decide the winner as soon as possible, so the second phase of the war will break out soon. I estimate that it will start after the winter wheat is harvested, so we must complete this matter before the war starts again. The European Commercial Bank suffered too much last year, and we We have to make a lot of money from this. "
"In addition, when you purchase weapons and equipment, be careful to select them and keep the best quality weapons and armor for our own army. These things may be cheaper than making them from our own workshops."
Salter nodded in agreement as he walked. Just after he finished speaking, he had already arrived at the door of the business. Several middle-aged men in gorgeous clothes came forward and took off their hats to salute Art.
Salt introduced Art to Art: "Sir, these are the heads of the Aosta guilds, namely Sado, the head of the textile guild, Criti, the head of the crafts guild, and Gilles Lebre, the head of the Aosta treasury. Mr. Gill is also the head of the guild in Aosta. They are your admirers and want to meet you after hearing that you have arrived in Aosta."
These people are business elites who control various industries. The power of guilds in this era is very powerful, so Art does not rely on others and quickly steps forward to greet everyone.
After a while of greetings, Matthew and the others followed a clerk to pack the horses and bags, while Art and Ron followed the others into the Aosta Continental Trading Company.
Aosta is the largest city in eastern Provence, and the trading house here is the core of the southern power of the European trading houses. Therefore, the trading shop has a large area, a wide variety of goods in the shop, and a huge storage. The storage shelves on several walls are full of dazzling goods. There are also some goods for sale in the middle of the shop. Generally speaking, the layout is similar to that of an ordinary southern goods store, except that it is very large and has an additional counter dedicated to purchasing scattered southern goods.
The goods in the shop are mainly divided into two categories.
Northern goods purchased from the North, such as herring and salted meat, grain, woolen cloth, wool, furs, livestock, plant ash, whale oil, wood, hemp, resin, beeswax, bow materials, iron, copper, tin and metal products, are all goods abundant in the North. These goods are not sold at high prices but are easy to purchase due to sufficient supply. They are also daily necessities needed by the southern countries;
In addition to expensive spices, goods from the southern countries include ceramics, gold and silver utensils, rice, oranges, apricots, figs, raisins, powders, potions, dyes such as hematoxylin, magenta, and alum, as well as raw materials such as cotton and raw silk. In addition, aromatherapy oils, tapenade, wine, truffles and other goods from Provence are also sold in the north.
Sart and several trading house stewards accompanied Art, explaining each type of goods and the situation of the trading company in detail to Art. "Sir, besides me, there is a permanent manager and a deputy accountant in this trading company. There is one housekeeper, two clerks, eight clerks, five guards, and three servants. On weekdays, I personally work here. Manid and two other sociable clerks are mainly responsible for external liaison and occasionally work here. "
"Here we mainly sell goods trafficked from the north. The southern goods were originally mainly transported to the north and sold at high prices. However, after the war in the north, we have accumulated a lot of southern goods. In order to reduce the inventory, we can sell them at low prices and make some money." Things are always piled up in warehouses..." Nowadays, the Continental Trading Company has opened up a vast supply of goods, and all kinds of scarce goods in the North can be supplied in full. However, what is worrying is that the war in the North has almost wiped out the sales market of luxury southern goods (who cares about enjoying luxury during the war), and it has also blocked the trade routes leading to the Principality of Burgundy and even the Kingdom of France. This has made the tanks of the Continental Trading Company stop moving forward.
Att picked up the fig placed on the wooden cabinet and put it into his mouth and took a bite. It tasted good. "My father-in-law is currently the deputy finance minister of the palace. Before returning from the expedition to the south, I had discussed with him that we would wait until the Liberation Army to move the front line. After advancing a certain distance to the west, we will start transporting the southern goods directly north from Besancon via the Black Iron Castle to the Principality of Burgundy for sale. At that time, he will come forward to discuss with the Principality of Burgundy in the name of the palace and let them open the border. Send caravans to trade in border cities. "
This is an emergency plan that Art had discussed with Galvin before. Now the commercial system in the northern part of Burgundy has basically collapsed. Originally, the southern goods only need to be transported to Lucesne or Besancon to be bought by merchants in the north. Those merchants will then transport the southern goods to the northern countries for digestion through their already mature sales channels, so that everyone can save trouble and make money.
Of course, there is a price to pay for the Besançon palace to coordinate. In addition to the huge military expenditure that Art has contributed to the palace, it also has to purchase weapons and armor from Provence for the Liberation Army. This is one of the reasons why Art arranged for European trading houses to purchase weapons and equipment.
Sart knew Art's arrangement, "The trade road from Besançon to the Principality of Burgundy via the Black Iron Castle is a long way and we have never traveled there before. The risks along the way are great. Should I personally lead the caravan when the time comes?"
Matt waved his hand, "No, no, you have to stay in the south to take care of the overall situation. This year, the secret trade route from Andermatt Castle and Glaru County to Swabia will also be expanded, and you will need to take care of it by then. You first straighten out everything in the south, and after the war in the north is over, you will immediately move to the north to work for the European Commercial Bank. The layout has been laid out. I have arranged for Kenem of Lucesien to start planning, but after all, you need to control the overall situation. "
"As for the caravan that transports goods to the Principality of Burgundy, I plan to let Lawrence be temporarily in charge. In addition, the caravan from Sap Castle will also send people to join the northern caravan."
“By the way, after the war is over, the commercial power of the Sarpe Territory will also be integrated into the European Commercial Bank. From now on, we will have an additional trade route from Sarpe to the Principality of Burgundy and the Kingdom of France via Codor and Saône. This matter can be discussed later. But sooner or later, you will have to control it, so you have to plan ahead." Salter felt excited when he heard this. Art has always regarded himself as the helmsman of the European trading company, which made him very satisfied.
After checking the warehouse accounts in the store, talking and encouraging with a group of stewards and guards, Art came to the room on the second floor to rest, while Salt personally prepared lunch for Art and others. Several heads of the Aosta guild were invited by Art to have lunch together, and naturally there was a while of drinking and chatting...
It was already late after lunch, so Art rested for a while at the Continental Trading Company and then hurried to the tavern where he had agreed to meet with Balian.
Perhaps Balian successfully met the deputy minister of the Provence Palace and was praised. He was in high spirits, and this friend was very reliable in doing things. That night, he made an appointment with Aosta's city manager, commercial officer, tax officer, police officer, etc. for Art. Among the officials who are directly related to the Continental Trading Company, some are civilian officials but some have the false title of baron and viscount. Although these people have low titles, they are indeed powerful figures in the city of Aosta. In order for the Continental Trading Company to be able to enjoy themselves here, Art must of course make friends.
Another night of hangover...