"We're going to be rich! This isn't an ordinary salt mine—it's a high-purity salt mine. The deeper we dig, the purer the salt becomes. These two chunks I dug up are already pure enough to eat directly!"
Leon held up two pieces of salt ore, spinning in circles with the joy of a child.
It was as though he had received the candy he had longed for most as a child.
Then he rushed up to Lynn and shouted excitedly:
"My lord, grant me exclusive rights to sell the salt from this mine, and my sister is yours. All the supplies I provided before will be free, and in the future I'll provide large quantities of iron goods and ingots at low prices. I'll also guarantee a salt price that satisfies you. What do you say?"
Lynn replied with a smile, "Of course, my friend."
In any era, merchants naturally pursued monopolies.
Salt imports, grain exports, and fur exports in the Northern Kingdom. Most imports and exports of bulk commodities were monopolized by a single family or guild.
Take the grain trade, for instance. Small grain merchants in the north would travel to various territories in autumn to purchase grain.
The grain would be transported along the White River and its tributaries, eventually gathering at Amber Harbor, the port city at the kingdom's easternmost edge.
The Grain Guild of Amber Harbor possessed grain-trading privileges granted by the King. Only they could transport grain out of Amber Harbor and ship it to coastal ports along the Southern Border.
In White Bear Territory, Barley was purchased for one silver coin per forty-five kilograms, but its price doubled once it reached the coastal cities of the Southern Border.
By monopolizing grain exports, the wealthy merchants of the guild made fortunes, while the small