Empire of Shadows

President Richard sat in his office, listening to his subordinate’s report on the distillery’s sales for the month. He kept nodding with satisfaction.

Before Prohibition was enacted, he had stockpiled a large amount of liquor, and this liquor had flowed into society through legal means, allowing Gold Label Distillery to make a huge profit.

But this big profit was a one-time deal. Because they couldn’t provide a steady supply of liquor, they could only watch helplessly as smuggled liquor frantically took away the profits that should have belonged to them from the market.

Fortunately, they now had a franchise license, and he had also persuaded the board of directors to start selling liquor to the public.

In fact, he hadn’t wasted much effort to persuade the board. He had just taken out the prices of liquor on the market and placed them in front of every director.

He didn’t even need to open his mouth to say something like ”I have an idea.” Seeing the astonishing profits, the board of directors had immediately taken the initiative to talk about whether they could sell the wine to the free market.

With such huge profits, let alone making them trample on the law, as long as the profit was high enough, there would be no problem even if they were asked to assassinate the president.

Facts had also proven that the profits from selling to the gangs had directly sent the members of the board of directors into a collective climax!

But it was a pity that their huge profits had not lasted for long. A spoiler had appeared—the Lance Family.

Fortunately, this was Indeno State, not Likalai State. The Lance Family simply couldn’t compete with them here.”Richard, when can we raise the price of the liquor again?”

A member of the board of directors couldn’t help but ask.

Right now, for every low-end Copper Label Whiskey sold, the gross profit was nine dollars. Richard, in order to continue to compress the Lance Family’s market, was preparing to lower the price by another dollar in a few days.

This way, their gross profit would only be eight dollars.

After deducting various expenses from the eight-dollar gross profit, the net profit for dividends would only be four or five dollars. Although this price was already much higher than their profit before the implementation of Prohibition, they were still not satisfied.

After eating those delicacies, how could they still swallow wild vegetables?

President Richard maintained his demeanor, smiled slightly, and patted the armrest of his chair with one hand. ”I know you are very anxious, but don’t be, listen to me first.”

”Actually, the Lance Family’s invasion of Indeno State is not all bad. He has stirred up the entire liquor market and landscape of Indeno State. If you have been to a roadside bar now, you will find that there are fewer of those miscellaneous brands of wine.”

”The market has been purified a little after being squeezed. Some of the things that were not convenient for us to do before, the people of the Lance Family have now done for us!”

”As long as we drive out Golden Lion Wine, our market will be more fully released, and expanded.”

In the past, there were many small, miscellaneous brands of wine, or wine smuggled from other places. The components of these liquors were very complex, and it was simply impossible to clean them up.

Behind them might be some gangs, some smuggling groups. These people were gangs in the true sense.

If you want them not to smuggle, not to let them make money, they will fight you to the death!

Gold Label Distillery couldn’t do these things, but the Lance Family could.

The mayor had cooperated with their actions. All the wine in the city that was not theirs had been forced to be cleared.

There were definitely some who were not convinced. The result was a firefight. The local police had helped the Lance Family to fight them. Soon, the liquor markets in some areas had become ”monopolized.”

The monopoly here referred to the monopoly of the supplier, but in fact, the Lance Family’s products were not singular.

As long as they could drive the Lance Family away, these purified markets would become theirs.

As for whether those miscellaneous wine brands would come in again, that was another matter.

As he spoke, the smile on his face gradually faded and became serious.

As President Richard, who had single-handedly promoted the various developments of Gold Label Distillery, he still had a great deal of influence and authority in the company and on the board of directors.

”I have never been worried about whether we can do this. Their business strategy has determined that their costs are definitely higher than ours.”

”Even if they build a factory locally, it won’t work!”

He had also heard that Lance had given those mayors a cut, and the cut was not small, which was one of the reasons why some cities were willing to support Lance. Lance could bring them greater benefits.

In a situation where they didn’t have to do anything and could get so much wealth, it was very difficult for them not to support Lance.

”We now need to continue to fight this price war. The current price is still too high. I will lower the price again in September to October. I think a more appropriate final selling price is around twenty-two.”

Hearing this, the other members of the board of directors all showed a look of surprise and even shock. At present, the cost of producing a bottle of Copper Label Whiskey was seventeen or eighteen.

The reason why the cost was so high now, and not just a few dollars as in the past, was mainly because the price of various raw materials had been rising.

The price of grain had quietly doubled, and because of the large-scale conscription, the wages of the federal workers had also gotten some increase.

Employment is also a free market. If there are fewer workers, the wages will naturally be raised to increase the attraction.

”Our strategy is very simple. That is, we make less money, and the Lance Family makes no money, and even loses money!”

”When they, for every bottle of wine they sell, will have a loss, then the more they sell, the more they will lose. We can even consider directly buying their wine, and after re-bottling it, sell it to the outside, to save time.”

”After we have driven out the Lance Family and have monopolized the local liquor market, how to set the price, will it not be up to us?”

”And!” his hand tapped on the table, and people’s gazes were focused on him. ”Some of Lance’s practices have given me some inspiration. We can also, after raising the price, cooperate with the mayors of various places, and we can also consider helping the lieutenant governor to win the election.”

”This will be helpful for us to continue to control the situation of liquor sales in Indeno State.”

”This meeting today, besides letting you know how much money we have earned this quarter, also requires us to be on the same page in our thinking.”

”From July to the end of this year, our sales will become more, but our profits will decline. You have to be mentally prepared.”

The members of the board of directors, listening to President Richard’s words, fell into deep thought, but soon some began to agree with his strategy.

A price war was not unfamiliar to capital. On the contrary, it was very familiar.

In the years of the most savage development of capital, to obtain a market share and to achieve a monopoly by means of a price war, and to control the pricing power, was something that happened every day.

When there is competition in capital, they can even sell their goods to you at a loss. For them, the customer is their parent!

But once the competitiveness is lost, and the competing forces are eliminated, a monopoly will soon come.

At this time, no matter who you are, the monopoly group is the customer’s parent!

Whatever price they say, that’s what it is!

A monopolized business is the real huge profit, and it is also the ultimate goal that the merchants pursue.

A director asked with some worry, ”If we drive the Lance Family out of here... will it attract their retaliation?”

”The Lance Family is a gang. I hear they are very domineering in Likalai State, and from their performance on the New Birmingham side, they are not easy to provoke.”

President Richard nodded in agreement with his point of view, but at the same time, he retorted, ”But are we easy to provoke?”

”We talked about it last time. We will fully support the lieutenant governor’s campaign. As long as the lieutenant governor wins the election, so what if he’s not easy to provoke?”

”He can’t possibly deal with the entire law enforcement system of Likalai State, unless he wants to be an enemy of the Federation!”

He added some emphasis to his tone. ”We have already made all the preparations, gentlemen!”

Seeing President Richard say these words with such a strong aura, every director seemed to have been convinced by his confidence.

This was also Mr. Richard’s happiest time. At this moment, he had a feeling of being an emperor, the feeling of having great power in his hands, and no one dared to refute him!

At the end of the meeting, the oldest director on the board of directors, before he left, still warned him, ”Although you are very confident, Richard, I think you still have to be careful.”

”You never know if a dog is wagging its tail at you to get close to you, or to bite you.”

”Before something happens, we have to learn to be cautious!”

Richard had accepted it with great humility, but he had not completely taken it to heart.

He still had a lot of work to do, for example, to expand the factory.

Now the Gold Label Distillery could produce 10,000 bottles of whiskey a day. The production capacity was still not enough to keep up with the sales. According to the discussion of their technical department, they needed at least a daily output of about 40,000 bottles to be able to meet the supply of low-end whiskey in Likalai State.

Even if they could only earn five dollars a bottle, that was still 200,000 a day. What a fucking huge profit!

In order to make this money as soon as possible, he had been busy with the matter of expanding the factory area.

He needed new assembly lines, new mechanical equipment, a larger site, and more workers!

He believed that Gold Label Distillery would, under his leadership, create one new record and miracle after another!

In the evening, two cars stopped outside the factory. The people in the cars were observing this factory.

It was already a little after nine, but the lights in the factory were still on. The buzzing sound from the large machinery, including the conveyor belts, could be heard even further in the dark of the night.

The workshop was full of people. Now they were also implementing a three-shift policy, because there were too many orders.

The security guard in the factory area had discovered these two cars. Before he could get close, the cars had left. The security guard did not take it as a big deal.

During this period, Gold Label Distillery had sold the wine to a gang, which had led to many messy people appearing around the distillery.

As long as these people did not mess around, and did not break into the distillery, they would not interfere.

The person in charge of this matter this time was a captain by Elvin’s side.

The result of the observation was not very good. First of all, there were always people working in the factory. Even if they set a fire, when the fire was not big enough at the beginning, it would be easily extinguished.

And the security of the distillery was very tight. They had pulled an electric fence, and there were also patrol teams. In addition, with the workers who were working 24/7 inside, it was not an easy matter to sneak in.

Sitting in the car, the captain took out a job posting from his pocket. It mentioned that Gold Label Distillery needed to recruit a batch of workers...