Chapter 116 Cocktail Party

A few days ago, when the Duke and Duchess of Bell went to London to attend a tea party hosted by the Queen, they met many people at the table wearing those beautiful silk dresses.

This fabric is colorful, very soft to the touch, and shimmers with a beautiful jewel-like luster.

No woman could resist such a beautiful skirt. The Duchess fell in love with it at first sight and immediately sent her men to find out what kind of fabric it was.

The servant asked around for her and learned that the cloth was called silk and was brought from a large ship in the East.

The Duchess asked the servants to ask where she could buy such fabric. She really liked it. If she could buy a few pieces to make a long dress, she would wear it every day!

Unfortunately, at present only the Archbishop of Genoa has this kind of cloth, and each piece is worth fifty gold coins. Despite its high price, it is still in short supply.

Some people say that Anton Tepu has also been selling this kind of cloth recently. The price is not cheap either, ranging from sixty to seventy gold coins per piece, but it is still in short supply.

In the end, the tea party ended and the Duchess was unable to buy the fabric.

After returning home, she lost her appetite for several days and dreamed of making a silk skirt.

Seeing his wife becoming increasingly thinner, Duke Bell sent people to ask around. His efforts paid off, and he finally found a Venetian merchant who sold silk, but he wanted one hundred gold coins for one piece.

Bell spent five hundred gold coins to buy a few pieces of silk for his wife, but he didn't expect that the silk he bought was fake, just wool textiles dyed in more gorgeous colors.

The Duchess was furious and ordered the swindler to be caught and hanged.

They thought they would never be able to buy this kind of fabric again, but they didn't expect that this ship from the East would actually dock here! Duke Bell was a henpecked husband, and it was difficult for him to refuse his wife's love.

"You can trade on shore, but all items sold on the ship will be charged three levels of interest as city management fees."

Zhao Xiao readily agreed: "No problem." At worst, the price of silk could be raised to fifteen gold coins per piece. These noble ladies shouldn't be short of a few gold coins anyway.

The Duchess offered to be the first on board to buy silks.

Zhao Xiao said: "Of course, if you like, I can give you some."

The Duchess covered her upturned lips with a fan, threw a wink at Zhao Xiao, and then took the Duke of Bell's arm and twisted her plump body to get on the boat.

The two came to the cabin and looked at the huge warehouse and exclaimed: "How many rolls of cloth are here!"

Song Yutang said: "We carried 50,000 pieces of cloth when we set out, but now we only have more than 10,000 pieces left."

Duke Bell was calculating in his mind how much it would cost to buy the cloth, and his wife had already started selecting.

The pink silk was as bright as flowers, the sky-blue satin was as flowing as water, and there were all kinds of silk fabrics. She was dazzled by the choices, and finally she picked thirty pieces of fabric in one go.

Zhao Xiao did not take her money for the thirty horses and gave them to her for free.

If he wanted to do business here, he had to offend these two people. Moreover, he heard from Antonio that the Duke's estate had a lot of corn planted, and he wondered if he could sell some to them.

The servants got off the boat with the silks, and other noble ladies also wanted to get on board to make some purchases.

Zhao Xiao was not polite to these people. All cloth was priced at twenty gold coins per piece, and larger quantities would get a better deal!

When the ladies heard the price of twenty gold coins, their eyes widened in surprise.

Zhao Xiao thought he had set the price too high, so he whispered to Song Yutang, "How about a lower price?"

As a result, before Song Yutang had time to translate, the ladies rushed to the boat, fearing that if they ran too slowly, the beautiful cloth would be snatched away.

Twenty gold coins was much cheaper than what other merchants sold it for. You know, Anton Tepu's group of greedy Venetian merchants had already sold silk for hundreds of gold coins! Although they could afford it, who wouldn't want to spend less money and buy better cloth?

These people continued to choose until the evening before they returned with a full load. Dozens of noble ladies selected hundreds of pieces of cloth and asked servants to deliver gold coins, which were then counted by several soldiers on the ship.

After the ladies left, Antonio came over with the money and said, "General Zhao, does our agreement still count?"

Seeing that silk was selling so well here, he was afraid that Zhao Xiao would go back on his word and would not sell him the soaked silk at the low price.

"Of course, but you have to transport the cloth yourself. We are not responsible for delivering it to your home."

Antonio clenched his fist happily and said, "You are such an honest and kind person. I hope God can bless you to make a lot of money and return home safely."

Zhao Xiao gave a genuine smile, "Thank you."

Antonio's uncle sent slaves from the manor to help transport the goods. Before leaving, he warmly invited Zhao Xiao to visit the manor.

Zhao Xiao said: "I will definitely visit you when I have time."

As the sky gradually darkened, everyone returned to the boat to rest after a busy day.

In the next few days, they will also have to sell all the remaining porcelain on the ship.

*

The Duchess quickly cut the fabrics into beautiful dresses.

Silk clothes are not only beautiful, but also very comfortable to wear, as smooth and soft as a baby's skin.

Duke Bell also received two sets of pajamas. He fell in love with the fabric after wearing them once. He had a skin disease and it itched a lot when he wore ordinary pajamas. But after changing to silk pajamas, he never felt itchy again.

In order to show off her new clothes, the Duchess held a cocktail party in the manor, and Zhao Xiao and others were also invited.

Song Yutang finished translating the gold-embossed invitation and said, "Shall we go?"

Zhao Xiao smiled and said, "Go, why not? This is a good opportunity to do business!"

Because there was a limit on the number of people who could attend the cocktail party, only Zhao Xiao, Song Yutang and two captains went together.

The two captains traveling with them were Ge Zhongshun and Chen Jing. One of them was lively and the other was calm and steady. They performed their duties conscientiously during this voyage and won Zhao Xiao's favor.

The four of them got into the carriage sent by the Duke and headed towards the city along the bumpy road.

Ge Zhongshun's butt was itchy from being shaken by the carriage, and he couldn't help but say, "The houses here are well built, why don't they repair the roads?"

Zhao Xiao: "Maybe they don't care." Looking at the shit and urine all over the ground, people here don't take the road seriously.

The carriage traveled for the time it took to stick of incense and stopped at a wide gate.

The four people got off the carriage and walked towards the yard, where guards stopped them and asked them to show their invitations.

Zhao Xiao took out the invitation from his arms and handed it over. The guard put one hand on his chest and bowed to them.

Ge Zhongshun whispered, "The management here is quite strict."

Chen Jing poked him and told him to speak less. It was okay for him to chatter on weekdays on the boat, but he had to be more cautious when he was in someone else's territory.

Ge Zhongshun also knew what was good for him, so he quickly shut up and followed the general, looking at the people around him vigilantly.

Soon the group followed the servants to the castle's hall.

Quite a few people had gathered in the hall, which was filled with a strong smell of wine mixed with various spices, which made several people sneeze at the same time.

"Ah, look who's here!" The Duchess exclaimed exaggeratedly, attracting the attention of others.

Many people came from other places and had never seen Zhao Xiao. They were a little curious about this strange-looking man with yellow skin and black hair.

The Duchess wore a dark pink long skirt today. She walked over leisurely and actually put her arm around Zhao Xiao's arm. Then she said loudly, "Thank you, my oriental friend, for giving me so much beautiful silk."

Everyone then suddenly realized that this was the famous Oriental businessman.

Zhao Xiao pulled his arm away awkwardly. Are foreign women so open-minded? Don’t they care about the difference between men and women?

Many people came up to him to chat and wanted to buy some silk from him.

There are still more than 9,000 pieces of silk on the ship. Although the noble lady has amazing purchasing power, selling them one piece at a time is too slow. How long will it take for him to finish selling them before he can go home?

So Zhao Xiao simply raised the price. It cost fifty gold coins to buy a single piece of silk, but the price was half that if he bought one hundred pieces, and only twenty gold coins per piece if he bought more than one thousand pieces.

When the noble ladies heard this, they began to discuss the matter. Many local ladies were celebrating their luck because they had bought a small amount of silk at the lowest price that day.

The Duchess laughed happily. Thirty pieces of silk would cost at least six hundred gold coins!

The captain actually gave it to her directly. He must have been impressed by her beauty.

While Zhao Xiao was hiding from the Duchess, he was discussing business with Song Yutang. In a short while, he sold more than 300 pieces of cloth.

After finally finding some free time, Zhao Xiao found a secluded corner and drank two glasses of red wine.

"General Zhao!" Another shout suddenly came from behind.

Zhao Xiao turned around and saw that it was Antonio. He walked towards him excitedly with a slim woman on his arm.

"This is my sister Annie, and this is the General Zhao from the East I was talking about."

Annie lifted her skirt and saluted Zhao Xiao, who nodded slightly in return.

The girl also wore a long silk dress today, but the style was different from that of other noble ladies. It was actually Daqi's clothing style, which looked somewhat familiar.

Antonio explained, "This is the skirt I bought for her in Daqi. By the way, General Zhao, I sold the silk you sold to me at ten gold coins per piece and made a lot of money."

"Okay." Zhao Xiao thought to himself, this boy is honest enough, he even told him when he made money.

After a while, Song Yutang came over after finishing his business talk. Annie looked at him and her face suddenly blushed. She whispered a few words in her brother's ear, then turned and ran away.

Song Yutang scratched his head in confusion and said, "General, a few earls want to see our porcelain. I asked Xiao Ge to go back and get it."

"OK."

"What's the price?"

Seeing that they wanted to discuss business matters, Antonio tactfully picked up his wine glass and went to socialize somewhere else.

Now he is a famous person in Britore. Everyone knows that he went to the far east and came back safely from there. Everyone is curious about what kind of country Daqi is, so Duke Bell specially invited him to attend this cocktail party.

After he left, Zhao Xiao said, "I don't plan to sell the porcelain."

The price they had offered the bishop before was ten gold coins per piece of porcelain, but now Zhao Xiao was somewhat dissatisfied because the number of porcelains was small, with only 5,000 pieces on board. Scarcity makes things valuable, and most of the porcelains were in sets, so selling them separately would not make much money.

"The tentative price is 500 gold coins for the simple set (including 24 pieces of porcelain), 1,000 gold coins for the medium set (including 66 pieces of porcelain), and 2,000 gold coins for the luxurious set (including 140 pieces of porcelain)."

After hearing the quotation, Song Yutang was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped, thinking to himself, General Zhao, you are so cruel!

(End of this chapter)