When you traveled to a place and saw that the local products were less than a third of the price of the products near your home, what would you do?
Of course, you'd do something … cough, cough, I meant buy, buy, buy, buy.
Such a price difference was no longer at the level of being greedy for small gains. Instead, it was at the level of directly making a large purchase, which would greatly improve your quality of life for several years.
And it just so happened that the Seymour people in Cape Town were incredibly rich.
Yes, they were incredibly rich. It was already a tradition for them to scavenge for natural thunderstruck stones in the wastelands. Even the poorest miners would bring low-quality thunderstruck stones as gifts or toys for their children. The Seymour people were also naturally fond of this type of jewelry that contained the element of lightning. Both men and women had the habit of wearing horn rings.
Every family only felt that the thunderstruck stones were somewhat valuable, just like how they worked hard to save up gold bars. More or less, they all had some savings.
And for the Aishi people, this type of natural thunderstruck stone was a true treasure. At the very least, it was worth a lot of money.
Since they had money and cheap goods in front of them, they would naturally buy, buy, and buy.
Not only would they buy high-end construction materials and large items like engineering magic armor, they would also buy household appliances, children's toys, tobacco, alcohol, and other daily necessities in large quantities. Even things like pesticides and toilet seats would be bought in large quantities, with people carrying large bags and buying them all at once … although most of these items wouldn't be of any use even if they bought them back.
But how could it be said? The mentality of "it's super worth it," "it's limited," "it's cheap," and "it's so cheap" … the mentality of "it's so cheap," "it's so cheap," and "it's so cheap."
To be honest, the goods in front of them weren't cheap at all. The cost of the goods was several times higher than normal, including the cost of transportation and sales, but the profit was probably still more than 50%.
But to be honest, compared to the way Jiaocheng played, it was definitely much cheaper.
Now that the iron motorcycles were popular, the cost of traveling to and from Cape Town was much cheaper. Most importantly, the safety of the motorcycles was greatly improved as well. In that case, it was possible for people to visit Cape Town frequently. Naturally, this would be followed by transportation, purchasing, smuggling, and so on.
It was no wonder that Cape Town's bigwigs were preparing to enact a new law that required individuals to pay taxes when entering and leaving the city … Otherwise, not only would the citizens buy goods on behalf of others, but the smuggled goods would also completely destroy Cape Town's current market for imported goods.
When the merchants paid the heavy taxes and entered the city, they discovered that there were cheaper similar products. As long as they weren't stupid, they wouldn't come again. In that case, Cape Town naturally lost its status as a business hub.
As for whether Vila Nova Dônia did this on purpose or not, they even specifically mentioned this major project and the rules for tourists in the treaty from two years ago … Would anyone believe me if I said it was just a coincidence?
It was still the same saying. Compared to the Aishi People who had inherited, seen, and matured a lot, the Seymour people who were still learning how to remember things a few hundred years ago weren't even on the same level as the Seymour people when it came to scheming and competition. They might be able to compete with the Seymour people by relying on their population advantage, but when it came to such soft tactics, they wouldn't even know how they lost.
It could be foreseen that even if this "new law" was enacted, which was basically stealing money and profits from the citizens, the citizens of Cape Town would be greatly dissatisfied. It would also be impossible to stop smuggling. Rorschach himself knew that several government factions were involved in smuggling. Not only were there the Aishi Church, there were also the local bigwigs of Cape Town … It was impossible to count on the "independent warlords" to have such low moral integrity, especially when they lacked the military funds for civil wars and for fighting for the throne.
Rorschach could already imagine what would happen. With the smooth flow of railway transportation and the establishment of new trade channels (both in the open and in the dark), Cape Town's current economic system would be greatly damaged. Right now, clothing, food, and other basic goods were only slightly more expensive than similar goods in Cape Town, but the quality of both goods … The citizens could sometimes be quite cruel. They would shout about supporting the nation's industries while choosing goods that they felt were good for the price. From a certain standpoint, due to the underdevelopment of the nation's industries and the high production capacity of skilled workers, it was inevitable that the Seymour people's industries would be greatly damaged as well.
This wasn't even at the cost of selling goods. Maintaining high profits and still being able to destroy their competitors' industries and factories was a dream come true for capitalists. If the conditions allowed for it, it was inevitable that large amounts of goods would be dumped.
The closure of factories and production industries would bring about unemployment. The influx of large amounts of agricultural products would make life difficult for farm owners and farmers. Plus, the taxes would only increase and never decrease … Rorschach could already foresee large-scale unrest in Cape Town in the future.
But perhaps this was still a good thing for the Seymour Lords. At the very least, as long as the unemployed workers and farmers were given enough food to eat, they would be good soldiers. With a civil war on the verge of breaking out at any moment, the Seymour Lords had no time to care about anything else.
That's right, civil war. The internal conflicts in Cape Town were so intense that it was only natural that a war would break out at any moment.
Nobody was an idiot. Vila Nova Dônia's mere existence in the wastelands meant that it would inevitably become Cape Town's competitor. The threat of Vila Nova Dônia's culture, economy, diplomacy, and military would only increase with each passing year.
The "truth" of the Seymour Lords being unable to reach a consensus, but everyone could see that the current situation of tariffs, military, and diplomacy was chaotic and dragging each other down. At the very least, they had to first decide who was the boss first in order to better deal with the outsiders.
After Sydeon fell, there were already more than a dozen Seymour Lords who claimed to have inherited his legacy.
Cape Town and Vila Nova Dônia had an agreement that forbade them from attacking each other for a limited period of time. Then, before the agreement became useless, they would first start a civil war to determine who was the boss. At the very least, it sounded pretty good.
The current situation was right in front of them. Although they were both a combination of various powers, Vila Nova Dônia's internal structure was more stable and the competition was more benign. It was in a period of rapid development. On the other hand, Cape Town was constantly having internal conflicts and had become much weaker than it had been a few years ago.
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