Bartaad also didn’t know that the companies who received the letter interpreted the act as a full-force retaliation by Larusia Trading. They had no reason to endanger themselves for Enoba Company’s sake. There were plenty of other merchants who sold the generic products, but Larusia Trading was the only distributor of the popular Yamano County goods in this country. No one had to openly oppose Enoba Company; they could simply cease doing business with them for the time being.
It was practically a guarantee that merchants throughout the capital─no, the entire country─would do the same, so no single business had to fear retribution. There was no reason for any of them to hesitate about cutting off Enoba Company. They were all merchants, and they had to do what was right for their business.
Just when Enoba thought their situation couldn’t get any worse, it did. As similar requests began to pile up from abroad in the coming days, it became clear that not only were all their domestic clients cutting them off, but their foreign clients were as well.
Enoba Company was a major business that had a flagship store in the capital and several branch shops throughout the country. It also did plenty of business across borders. Right now, those foreign clients were sending in their letters of contract termination, each one saying much the same thing as the ones from the big domestic companies.
The foreign businesses had also received a letter from the sole distributor of Yamano County goods in Voftress saying that they refuse to do business with anyone that was affiliated with Enoba Company. Normally, losing business from one young and fresh merchant wouldn’t have much impact on a company’s profits. Continuing international trade with a major company was much more profitable.
But not this time. Yamano County goods were a sensation across the continent. Royals, nobles, and other powerful figures were ordering masses of them. Losing Yamano County’s products would mean losing their most valuable clientele.
The moment a wealthy buyer couldn’t obtain Yamano County goods with their usual seller, they were going to take their business to another merchant. Foreign companies had no choice but to cease doing business with Enoba Company.
“Damn it… What the hell is happening?” Bartaad seethed, tearing at his hair.
A clerk who finally learned what was happening shared his findings: domestic and foreign companies alike had received a notice from a certain trading company in the capital. Because of that, they were all shifting their stances in the same direction.
“What?! This is all that Larusia Trading girl’s doing?! How could she possibly have this much influence?”
Bartaad had completely underestimated Larusia. She was the young daughter of a mid-sized merchant company and a total novice as a business owner. She had no backing other than her father whom she wasn’t on good terms with after leaving home to start her business. Bartaad could crush her father’s company like a grape if necessary.
In theory, Larusia had no one to save her. Bartaad assumed a little threat would be all it took to make her fall in line. He’d then obtain the exclusive rights to sell Yamano County goods in his country and employ the girl as a pretty little token clerk for one of his branch stores. She’d make a nice mistress, too.
That was what he had in mind when he proposed a merger, but to his surprise, she rejected him. He wasn’t too hard on her for that; all young merchants went through a phase of pursuing overambitious dreams before they got their first taste of reality. Her spunk reminded him of his own youth, and in a moment of uncharacteristic kindness, he decided to let her chase her dream for a little while longer. And so, he started off by offering her a normal business deal (one that would bring him great profit, of course).
His offer was to buy Larusia Trading’s wholesale goods at a twenty percent discount. Larusia rejected him flatly.
Mitsuha prohibited the partner stores in the Entrepreneur Girl International Network from altering wholesale prices depending on the client. She personally disliked that practice, and she knew that people would try to threaten the young female owners into lowering the prices for them. As such, she made it easy for the girls to reject proposals like that by claiming their supplier was strict about the wholesale prices of her goods.
Larusia likely would’ve rejected the offer anyway. After the cost of acquiring the goods, employees’ and guards’ salaries, rent and maintenance, utility bills, customer service expenses, office supplies, and taxes, her net profit was just under twenty percent of sales. A twenty percent discount would’ve put her in the red.
Mitsuha was the only one who had an absurd profit ratio; the Entrepreneur Girl International Network members’ gains were moderate. One of the biggest reasons for that was the relatively hefty price they paid for the Yamano County goods. No one complained, though; the price made sense, given the fact that the goods (supposedly) had to be shipped from overseas and took months to arrive.
Larusia was still making money. Her customers were buying a lot of generic goods from her, hoping to win her favor and first dibs when the Yamano County products were in stock. That gave her a massive advantage over her competition, but she wasn’t dumb enough to sell her goods at a loss when they were already in high demand.
Bartaad was simply trying to prey on her company because it was new and owned by a young woman, and if she didn’t do as he said, he’d try to put her out of business and snag her trading routes. However, she expected he’d do so as a businessman and use business tactics like undercutting her prices─not by launching a criminal and vicious attack. There was no way to respond other than to bare her fangs and strike back.
“Larusia Trading will cease to conduct business with the six particular businesses and any affiliated companies or individuals,” was all the letters said.
Nowhere in the letter did they accuse those companies of being responsible for the attack on Larusia Trading. The stores who received the memo were free to do business with whomever they pleased. No one had any right to complain. Therefore, there was nothing Enoba Company could do to call out Larusia Trading in this matter.
Not legally, anyway. But the word about Larusia Trading’s announcement spread throughout Voftress and beyond. If the company was attacked again, Enoba Company would be the primary suspect.