King
Chapter 163 - 163 112 Single Industrial Chain_3

163: Chapter 112, Single Industrial Chain_3 163: Chapter 112, Single Industrial Chain_3 Looking at the accounts on the bamboo slips, Hudson profoundly felt that the products of his own territory were too monotonous.

All focused on “iron”, yet if one day the Southeastern Province discovered a few more iron mines, the business of Master Hudson could be instantly smashed to pieces.

Well, if not based on “iron”, what else could bring about wealth in this era?

Throughout history, feudal kingdoms have profited most from “salt” and “iron”, getting a share of the “iron” business is purely down to luck.

“Salt”, if Hudson dares to step into that territory, his Mountain Domain might be annihilated overnight.

Without a doubt, driven by enormous profits, the Dalton Family would absolutely do such a thing.

According to rumours, the profit from salt accounts for half of the Dalton Family’s income.

Anyone daring to touch this piece of cake is asking for trouble.

Even if some discontented nobles secretly instigate a few merchants to sell contraband salt, they must tread carefully to avoid leaking any information.

Often times, the slightest turbulence would scare them into silencing anyone who might leak information.

The number of contraband salt sellers killed by these masterminds exceeds those caught by the Governor’s Mansion.

As for whether they managed to make any money from this, Hudson thinks not, or at least no substantial profit.

The reason is quite straightforward: the sales volume of edible salt is stable overall, and even shows a slight increase over time.

A decline in sales would immediately attract the attention of the Dalton Family.

Under such circumstances, let alone making money, they are lucky if they manage not to get caught.

This all relies on the blessings of the Lord of the Dawn.

If it’s impossible to get into the most profitable industries, they have to settle for the next best — “tobacco and wine”.

Tobacco can be excluded, as the Continent of Aslante does not contain any.

Even if Hudson could find tobacco leaves, he wouldn’t know who to sell them to.

“Wine” must be grape wine.

At the multitude of banquets Hudson has attended, grape wine was always used.

Regrettably, the Southeastern Province is located in the south of the kingdom, which is clear from its name.

Although rainfall is plentiful, sunshine depends on luck.

During a year with less rainfall like this one, the sunshine is plentiful, and the quality of the grapes grown will be quite good.

However, in a year with continuous rain and overcast skies, just being able to see grapes bearing fruit is quite an achievement, let alone expecting them to be of good quality!

The main consumers of grape wine are nobles.

Although most of them have little refinement and can’t distinguish the quality of wine,

some “connoisseurs” study it deeply and hold the majority voice within the industry.

Even if Hudson could produce it, he could only survive in the fiercely competitive market of “low-end wine”.

Instead of making that hard-earned money, it would be better to produce Baijiu (Chinese hard liquor) and gradually cultivate the market.

Naturally, this is purely hypothetical.

Before finding the customers, the prudent Master Hudson would not blindly develop a product that is off-trend from the market.

Besides these products, what else could be developed?

“Matches”, it seems a bit difficult to produce.

Manual work—hence it’s not hard to imagine how high the production cost would be.

The convenience it brings may hardly bring a high sales price.

After all, the nobles don’t need to kindle the fire for cooking, would it matter if the servants find life any easier?

“Soap”, a must-have product for time-travellers.

However, such a smelly thing is mainly used for washing clothes.

To stand out one has to change the production method and create an odourless product.

Pure animal fat certainly cannot be used as raw materials, otherwise the foul smell can’t be removed.

If there’s no difference between this and the stinky soap on the market, Hudson wouldn’t believe that there’s a huge profit in this common item.

Vegetable oil as a substitute seems plausible.

But looking at the current production capacity of vegetable oil, it may be hard to rely on in the short term.

This kind of new product could only make one-time quick money.

Once someone deciphers the technology, copycats will soon appear.

Aslante doesn’t have patent protection, and even if there were, Hudson lacks the strength to fight against piracy across the continent.

Any money earned is a bonus, Hudson has decided to increase the production of vegetable oil.

Once he has accumulated enough raw materials, he will make a quick profit.

Even if the technology leaks later, at the very least he could occupy a place in the market with the name of the pioneer.

People are all human after all, at similar prices, people prefer to use authentic products.

Unless the quality of the authentic product is worse than the pirated one, there’s nothing much to say, they deserve to be eliminated by the market.

If things really come to that, Hudson can accept that.

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