Analyzing Revenue
Victor sat at the table, flipping through a report. After a while, he frowned and looked up at the people in front of him: General Manager Powell, Finance Department Weber, and Octavia, who were now the heads of the Telegraph Merchants' Guild of Commerce.
"You all rushed to find me just for this?"
I know the Telegraph Office has been doing well these past few days, since I pass by it every day on my way to the Government Affairs Office, but the total revenue for the past three days is only 110 gold coins, which isn't much!
Weber, lately the Finance Department has been handling thousands of dollars worth of orders every day for immigration and expansion. This amount of money isn't worth your attention!
And then there's Octavia. The research institute just received an order from the Telegraph Merchants' Guild's Guild, worth forty to fifty thousand gold in cash. 110 gold isn't even a fraction of that."
The three were taken aback by Victor's question. Indeed, as Victor said, this amount of money was not worth their attention.
However, Powell spoke first, "Marquis lord, you see, the Telegraph Office has generated 110 gold in revenue in just three days. If the revenue is only half of what it was during this period, we will only need a year and a half to recoup the cost of building the line from Wood Fort Town to Sea Song Town."
The telegraph project has enormous potential; if managed properly, it could become a major source of income for the territory."
Victor waved the revenue report in his hand and asked, somewhat puzzled, "Is that what you all think?"
The other two nodded in agreement.
Seeing their state, Victor quickly sent someone to notify the Minister of the Commerce Department Rabik. Fortunately, he was in his Ducal House at the Government Affairs Office, Rabik was also working in the same building, so Rabik arrived at the room very soon.
Victor handed the report directly to Rabik: "Take a look at this report and the data."
Although Rabik was puzzled, he didn't ask any further questions and picked up the document to read it.
He finished reading the document in no time, then looked up at Victor, Victor said, "Based on this report, analyze the Telegraph Office's revenue for the next month."
Rabik now understood what Victor meant and immediately began to explain from his professional perspective, "110 gold in revenue over three days is indeed a lot, but the peak was on the second day, with 70 gold in revenue that day. The third day saw a drop of half."
On the first and second days, there were still messages worth more than 1 gold, but on the third day, the highest was only 5 Silver Coin. Most orders were worth one or two Silver Coin, with only 5 to 10 characters in the message.
These telegrams were actually just some citizens with a little spare money trying out the telegraph function; less than one-tenth of them actually transmitted important messages.
Moreover, most chambers of commerce have already used telegrams, and there shouldn't be any news requiring them to use them again in the short term. In addition, only Wood Fort Town and Sea Song Town are connected by telegram.
Therefore, I believe that the Telegraph Office's revenue may not reach this level again in the next month, and may even be only one-tenth of the current level, most likely not exceeding 150 gold!
I have other reasons too...
Rabik, as expected of the territory's head of the Commerce Department, having been known to Victor before, analyzed the situation with great clarity. The other three quickly understood his words and realized they had been oversimplifying things.
Victor concluded, "It's not that you can't see it, it's just that your concern makes you confused. After all, our chamber of commerce has invested a lot, and you want to recoup your costs as soon as possible."
But what I want to say is that you don't need to put so much pressure on yourselves. The telegraph project definitely has a bright future, but there's no need to rush. Just take it slow!
After calming the three down, Victor knew that this turmoil surrounding the telegraph project should be coming to an end, and he could go and handle some other work.