Chapter 1043 Winter Festival
The time has come for winter, which is the longest day of darkness in the entire year. As you go through the day, the nights will gradually shorten and the days will gradually lengthen. Therefore, this day is regarded by the lost people as a good day to conquer the darkness and bring light.
Such a good day is also the day when the Gia Long Chamber of Commerce (Note), the chamber of commerce established by the Ruan family, holds its official annual meeting. All previous transactions and negotiations were conducted under the table; most of them were just to communicate, set conditions, and test each other's attitudes and limits.
But in order to nail down these verbal agreements, we still have to bring it to the annual meeting and discuss it candidly. After all, we are all one family. Especially after a conclusion is made, the entire family and the entire chamber of commerce still have to abide by it and maintain it together.
Of course, if you want to quarrel, the best time is when all the important people in the family gather together. Who comes to power and who falls into the dust can be decided on the spot.
The location of the annual meeting is not fixed each year. Before the end of the previous year's annual meeting, all attendees select the organizer for the following year; the organizer then decides the location within half a year and informs everyone.
The following year's annual meeting is usually held at the sponsor's branch headquarters, but there are occasional exceptions. The branch responsible for hosting will be regarded as the first-ranked family branch that year.
The Jialong Chamber of Commerce has maintained this method for hundreds of years without a main family, with each branch taking turns to be the banker. The main purpose is to avoid having an obviously targetable target like the 'capital' like in the past kingdom period. Nowadays, the Chamber of Commerce is like a multi-headed snake. It will cut off one or two heads, but it will not die completely.
This year's Winter Festival Annual Meeting will be held in a beautiful white castle nestled among mountains and lakes. This is the property that was mortgaged to the Chamber of Commerce by the former lord here. Now that the nobleman has died, the successor sent by the king does not dare to take back the castle at the risk of offending the Jialong Chamber of Commerce. Therefore, this castle naturally became the property of this branch.
The current speaker of this branch is Nguyen Yong Minh, a nobleman whom Lin met through the White Sword Master William Greco in the Vida Military Kingdom in the past, the wife of Baron William Engels, and the grandfather of Nguyen Thi Hui.
In terms of seniority, he is one generation older than the two brothers Nguyen Van Viet. In terms of qualifications, he often serves as the organizer of annual meetings for the branches he heads. This is even the fifth consecutive year as host. Although the Chamber of Commerce system recommends candidates for the following year this year, there is no prohibition on re-election.
The reason why this branch can be so strong is because it is located in the traditional cultural circle of Midi, with a vast territory and fertile land. Moreover, the love and vanity of the nobles in the center of Lost Land makes their need for money greater than anywhere else. However, for nobles, money is either taxed or borrowed. When you can't afford it, just use real estate as a mortgage. It's not a big deal.
As an old and powerful branch of the Chamber of Commerce, Ruan Yongming has always taken the right path, convincing others openly and openly, leaving no one with anything to blame. Apart from that, his behavior is impartial. So although today's annual meeting is different from the past, there is an unpleasant undercurrent flowing. Ruan Yongming does not support it, but he does not suppress it either.
Because everyone comes to the White Castle often, no servants are needed to guide them. When the various branches of the chamber of commerce are divided, people naturally walk to the banquet hall of the castle. Five long tables are arranged one horizontally and four vertically. The long table on the small steps serves as the master's seat. In addition to Ruan Yongming, there are children of the Ruan family from the same branch as him on the left and right, serving as assistants and handymen.
At the four long tables below, children of the Ruan family from all over the country were seated. They arranged the seats according to the chronological order of their respective speakers, and sat together in the same family. But if both parties agree, you can change seats, just tell the organizer.
Therefore, one of the foreplays of annual meetings over the years is the question of who wants to sit next to whom. The branches of each branch united will of course try to sit together as much as possible. On the one hand, it is to show one's position and attitude, and on the other hand, of course, it is because sitting close to each other makes it easier to discuss things privately.
In such a seat-changing game, of course there will be some attractive stars. Specifically, the more resources you have, the higher the demand from others for you, and the more popular you will naturally be. And such people can easily become the organizers of next year's annual meeting.
It started with a routine report of each branch's harvest over the past year.
What is different from the past is that thanks to the rise of forums in recent years, the chamber of commerce's reporting format has been changed from paper documents to forum format. Save the manpower of copying multiple reports to all branches and participants, and use a large water mirror screen for display purposes; those who need detailed information can open their own water mirror screen and read the documents on the forum.
They don't know how to conduct overly complicated statistical analysis, but at least they know how to compare last year's output with this year's to see whether it has increased or decreased, and what are the reasons behind it. The most eye-catching one among them is, of course, the Fen family that sold a large amount of grain through transactions with Ruan Van Yue this year.
Their income has increased several times that of last year. In previous years, there was so much grain that it would rot in the fields. This year, not only was it all put into the granary, but they also almost sold their own grain for the winter, causing people in the grain-producing areas to starve to death. dilemma.
Before the annual meeting, everyone only knew that this year's branch was happy from top to bottom. But how much money they make is not as clear as the clear figures in front of them, so many people can't help but glance at the Nguyen Van Viet brothers. Seeing the two of them with an attitude of not being shocked by honor or disgrace, everyone was thinking about which position their butts should be placed in to be more advantageous.
When it was Ruan Van Viet's turn to prepare to report the year's income, the people who had been impatient to listen to others bragging about themselves and were chatting in whispers also kept their mouths shut. Everyone wants to see how this branch develops this year.
On this day last year, Nguyen Van Viet's team's performance was worse than their previous situation. The most important thing is that there is a huge investment in the automobile manufacturing and R&D center that no one understands, and there is no immediate return. At that time, even if the gossips of other separated families had no right to interfere in other people's affairs, they still could not avoid making rude remarks.
This year, accustomed to the approach of a certain magician, Nguyen Van Viet used a revenue and expenditure curve diagram with pictures and text, as well as an industry classification pie chart to give a good expression of the rapid development he achieved through the automobile center. All numbers are justified.
And in the final part of the income, they are also very different from other branch families. Most of the others reported how much food they harvested, who they exchanged with, and what supplies they got. The key point is how much stuff can be exchanged or exchanged with other branches.
Ruan Wenyue was more direct and gave a number that blinded everyone. The income from the automobile manufacturing and research and development center is not a few cars or a few large trucks, but real coins of the five empires. This is not some bad money that no one wants or needs to be used at a discount.
Note: I forgot that this chamber of commerce had an official name before - Jialong Chamber of Commerce. Hereby add