Counterfeit Goods

With direct France support, the textile workers' strikes naturally became increasingly difficult to control. Of course, the Britain, especially the capitalists in the Britain textile industry, would not sit idly by. They had actually established considerable connections with the France before, and many of them were even so-called "pro-French." At this point, they naturally wanted to use these connections with France that they had acquired in previous years to make their own efforts.

After making contact with the France, representatives of the Textile Industry Guild returned with the following message:

"The textile industry workers in the Netherlands have spent a lot of money in France in recent years. Of course, that's not the main reason, because they don't spend more than us. The key is that they spend money on newspapers, which makes them louder than us. Coupled with France 'political correctness,' it's hard for the France not to take action."

"In addition, the France are also very dissatisfied with some of our practices," the representative conveyed.

"What did they do, Thomas? What did they say?" Raine asked quickly.

"They are extremely dissatisfied with the large number of counterfeit France high-end clothing products that have appeared on the Europe market over the past year or so. According to their investigation, the vast majority of high-quality counterfeit 'Chris' menswear comes from the Britain, which has greatly displeased the highest levels of government there..."

"What?! Which bastard did this?!" Thomas hadn't even finished speaking when someone shouted.

"Which bastard dares to steal this kind of money?! They're screwing us all over!"

"We have a black sheep among us!"

"Honestly, are they risking their lives for money? Don't they realize that the 'Chris' menswear line is... that's the business of that saintess from the Bonaparte family! I heard she's especially favored by the First Consul in the family, and they actually dare to steal her money... There are plenty of ways to make money, why would they want to make this kind of money?"

This kind of thing is actually easy to investigate. After all, everyone here is a vampire who's been around for a thousand years, so no one can pretend to be a werewolf. So everyone immediately focused their attention on one person.

"Why are you staring at me? I may own a garment factory, but I've never made counterfeit 'Chris' series clothing..." the man quickly explained, realizing something was amiss.

"Strictly speaking, that counterfeit 'Chris' series clothing can't really be considered counterfeit," Thomas, acting as the envoy, said coldly. "The France even showed me samples. The counterfeit product's 'Chris' on the label has an extra 's' at the end, although it's deliberately drawn with black thread and is very inconspicuous; you can't even see it if you're not paying attention. But it's still not 'Chris' after all. Right, Mr. Robson?"

Robson paused for a moment, then shouted, "It wasn't me, I didn't, don't talk nonsense..."

"If you really haven't done anything to wrong us all, to cause us such a huge problem, then let's all go to your garment factory, to your warehouse and take a look. What do you say, Robson?"

"I, I'm fine with this, but I'm not the only one with a garment factory. Mr. Aige, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Beckley all have garment factories. We should all go and take a look," Robson quickly said.

The faces of the people named by Robson immediately turned pale.

"Let's go now!" someone shouted.

"Yes, yes, right away!"

"I'll see who it is that has ruined all of us..."

"Don't rush, let Thomas continue speaking, let the France say what else. That's the most important thing!" Raine shouted.

Then everyone quieted down, and all eyes turned to Thomas.

"The France said this kind of thing is intolerable. And they also said..."

What did they say?

"They said they've made us a lot of money, which has caused a lot of resentment in the France textile industry. France products have always had an advantage in the ready-to-wear market, and this is meant to appease France textile workers. Therefore, they hope we Britain won't join the competition in the ready-to-wear industry," Thomas said.

"They're trying to monopolize the garment industry," someone whispered.

"If they want it, this market really can only be given to them," Raine nodded and said. "Although the profit margin in this industry is high, the market is actually not very big. Giving it to them, as long as we can keep the Europe fabric market, will be a good result."

Apart from the few people who had opened garment factories, everyone else expressed their agreement.

"Yes, this market isn't very big. It would be unwise to fall out with the France for such a small amount of money..."

"So, what about those workers, and the sanctions?" someone asked again.

Thomas sighed and said, "The France say that since the knife has already been drawn, even for the sake of face, there's no reason to put it back without doing anything. Besides... if we don't actually make a cut or two, they suspect we'll underestimate their resolve, leading to more miscalculations. So, to avoid further damage to mutual trust due to miscalculations, these measures will continue for some time..."

"Huh? How much longer will this last?"

"Next week, the 'White Paper on Human Rights in the Britain' will be published. Everyone knows what it will say. For the sake of appearances, they certainly won't relax their efforts during this period. However, they suggested that if the Textile Industry Guild could issue a statement after the White Paper's publication, indicating its willingness to conduct a self-examination and rectification of the White Paper's contents, and invite members of the 'Human Rights Review Committee' to conduct an inspection, then perhaps these measures could be lifted in two months," Thomas said.

"Two months... that's still too slow."

"Yeah, could you...?"

"The France really want to give us a good beating, to prove they have the knife and dare to use it. They won't back down," Raine said. "We've suffered considerable losses in the past two months, but it's not like we can't hold on any longer. Now they're the knife, and we're the meat—what can we do?"

"It's all your fault for being so greedy, not letting any money go to waste!" So everyone's anger turned back on the few people who owned the garment factory.

Following this, the Textile Industry Guild conducted surprise inspections of several companies' warehouses. To be fair, Mr. Robson was not lying; no counterfeit "Chris" series clothing was found in his factories and warehouses, indicating that he was not responsible. However, what everyone saw next angered them even more.

"Heh, 'Old Soldier Hunter Suit,' 'Old Soldier Backpack,' 'Old Soldier Rainproof Cloak'... Damn it! Robson, how dare you even fake this? Do you know what the background of the 'Old Soldier' series is?!"

Having been caught red-handed, Robson remained silent.

"Damn it! Why don't you just die! Everyone knows the 'Old Soldier' series belongs to the France Veterans Association, an organization with a very high standing in France politics. Your actions are even worse than imitating the 'Chris' series! You're a damned bastard!"

"Those France veterans are the worst kind of people to mess with. They're the kind of people who'd pull out a gun and rebel at the slightest provocation. You actually swindled money from them, no wonder the France reacted so strongly. No way, because of your reckless actions, you've caused us huge losses— Robson, you must compensate us!"

"I'm not a 'Old Soldier,' I'm really not a 'Old Soldier,' the insignia on this is different from that of a 'Old Soldier'!" Robson protested, his face pale.

"Robson, do you think we're fools? You've made money, but you've ruined us all!"

"I suggest that we hold a meeting immediately after this inspection concludes to discuss how to handle the situation. For now, let's continue our inspection."

The results of inspections at several garment factories were not good. Almost every garment factory was doing the same thing. At Aige, they found counterfeit "Chris" menswear; at Davis, they found counterfeit "Chris" womenswear; at Beckley, they once again found "Old Soldier" items... In short, the France accusations against them were very reasonable.

At the next meeting, the indignant business owners expressed their condolences to the female relatives of the "bad apples," and then quickly passed a resolution to impose hefty fines on these "bad apples" to compensate other textile merchants who suffered losses as a result.

At the same time, the Textile Industry Guild also decided to prohibit its members from opening garment factories.

The France proposal, which demanded a positive response to the "White Paper," a certain degree of rectification, and welcomed France inspections, was also passed by a significant margin.

Of course, during this period, the fewer chaotic incidents in the Britain textile industry, the better. For example, incidents like the last massacre of workers must never happen again. Otherwise, if something similar does happen again, considering the France people's reputation, those sanctions will not be abandoned halfway.

"The police are still arresting members of the ' United Trade Union. I think we should stop them for now and prevent any trouble. This is especially true when Miss Bonaparte is still in the slums. We must get the police to stop chasing those worker representatives, maintain the current contracts, not increase the workload or cut wages, and not give our enemies any opportunity to plot against us," Raine said.