"We can talk. There's a lot of stuff in the Northern Border. We can discuss it one thing at a time." Green didn't hesitate.
Industry was full of variety. Any single field could branch off into dozens of others.
Discussing things one at a time meant that some might be possible, while others would be walled off behind sky-high prices.
Still, that vague answer was certainly tempting.
When merchants negotiated, they didn't just rely on precision and cunning. They also had a taste for going all in and a desire to gamble.
Take grain in a certain region, for example. If it sold for five copper coins a sack and you bought it all, but harvests were plentiful across many regions that year, you might be forced to sell it for three copper coins a sack and accept your losses.
But if it was a year of famine, you could sell it for fifty copper coins a sack and make a fortune!
As long as merchants saw a chance, they'd always take a shot.
Louis had been in business for a long time, and Yuffie had precisely seized on that mindset.
"By the way, brother, I have one more condition."
"What condition? Go ahead and say it, my lovely little sister." What merchants needed most was to know what the other party wanted.
Now Yuffie had offered to give up some benefits and openly brought up the problem of food shortages. That was the key point.
Although the Northern Border Grand Duke didn't support Louis, and was strongly inclined to act independently, those things were already established facts. It was better to find a way to exchange them for greater benefits first.
"The Empire is too slow to replace its Military Equipment. Developing it ourselves, as you said, brother, would