The Odin Empire that was only 500 kilometers away from Flosinone was located in the north. 70% of the empire was covered in ice and snow for at least 6 months of the year. Therefore, regardless of gender, age, or gender, Odin loved alcohol that could warm their bodies with just a sip.
Although Odin loved alcohol, it was a pity that even though the Odin Empire had a lot of arable land, they could only grow crops once a year due to the fact that most of the land was covered in ice and snow. This led to the low rate of grain production in the Odin Empire. The amount of grain produced each year was barely enough to feed everyone in the empire.
If the situation wasn't good, the Odin Empire wouldn't have enough food to eat. Thus, under such circumstances, even if the Odin Empire liked wine, they couldn't take out too much food to make wine. Moreover, the Odin Empire's level of industrialization was relatively low, which led to the Odin Empire using food to make wine not being very efficient. This double blow caused the Odin Empire to produce a very small amount of wine every year.
As the saying goes, the rarer something is, the more expensive it is. In the Odin Empire, whether it was beer, distilled liquor, or wine, they were all high-end products that ordinary working class families couldn't afford.
Although alcohol was expensive and rare in the Odin Empire, its neighbor, the Kaman Empire, was much better. Due to the fact that fertilizers covered all the arable land and fertilizers, as well as the good weather in the past few years, the grain storage was full, and there was a lot of grain that could be brewed into alcohol. Due to the advanced industrial level, the Kaman Empire's alcohol industry was mainly produced by factories. Therefore, whether it was the efficiency of alcohol production or the efficiency of grain production, the Kaman Empire was at the top of the Byzantine Continent. Therefore, alcohol was still a relatively cheap product in the Kaman Empire. Ordinary working class families could freely drink alcohol.
According to the most authoritative business research company in the Kaman Empire, the Old Trafford Company, the price of beer of the same volume and quality in the Odin Empire was five times higher than in the Kaman Empire. Distilled liquor was eight times more expensive, wine was ten times more expensive, and high-end alcohol was eighteen times more expensive!
Therefore, due to the huge difference in the price of alcohol between the two empires, a large number of Kaman merchants sold alcohol from the Kaman Empire to the Odin Empire in order to make huge profits. This greatly affected the interests of the original wineries in the Odin Empire.
The large amount of cheap Kaman Empire's alcohol forced the originally fragmented Odin Empire's wineries and the interest groups behind them to unite and exert their influence on the Odin Empire's regime. They forced the Odin Empire's regime to impose a tariff that was a few times higher than the actual price of the Kaman Empire's alcohol. This would reduce the price competitiveness of the Kaman Empire's alcohol and make both sides' product sales reach the same starting line.
The high tariffs were undoubtedly a heavy blow. The alcohol trade between the Kaman Empire and the Odin Empire was normal, but the huge profits made a large number of illegal merchants ignore the prestige of the law and choose the path of smuggling. Every year, at least a few hundred people would lose their lives because of this. But the rolling heads and hanging corpses couldn't stop the crazed pursuit of wealth of the Kaman Empire's merchants.
Although there was a steady stream of people being executed, there were even more people rushing to secretly bring alcohol from the Kaman Empire to the Odin Empire to buy. All kinds of smuggling methods could be said to be endless and impossible to guard against. The long border between the Kaman Empire and the Odin Empire greatly increased the difficulty of the Odin Empire's surveillance and made it more convenient for the Kaman Empire's merchants to smuggle.
As for Galiardini's boss, he was also a part of this group of people who smuggled alcohol to the Odin Empire. But he was smart. He used the wood trade as a disguise and hid bottles of distilled alcohol in the wood. He wanted to use this to fool the Odin Empire's customs.
As the night watchman of the warehouse, Galliardini had once unintentionally seen his boss doing something while he was patrolling at night. However, Galliardini, who knew that this matter was serious and involved a lot of people, still chose to feign ignorance after careful consideration, pretending that he didn't know what had happened.
He knew very well that once his boss found out that he, Galliardini, had discovered the smuggling of alcohol in the wood, he would lose his job or even his life. Therefore, in order to keep his job and his life, Galliardini had buried this secret deep in his heart and had never mentioned it to anyone. If it weren't for the fact that he was being threatened with death in this room, Galliardini would have kept this huge secret until his death!
A few seconds after Galiardini gave his answer, the deep voice in the room raised a second question.
"How much do you know about this batch of goods in the warehouse?"
Hearing this question, Gagliardini seemed to be in a dilemma. He hesitated for a moment and said, "If I tell you what I know, can you guarantee the safety of my family and me? If my boss finds out that I betrayed him, he will definitely kill my entire family … "
"Pa! Pa! "
Before Galliardini could finish his sentence, he stopped abruptly. Two crisp sounds were heard in the room. Although no one had come into contact with him, Galliardini felt as though he had been slapped twice in the face.
"I'll remind you one last time. I'll ask and you answer. You don't have the right to negotiate with me." The deep voice sounded in the room again.
Galiardini, who had been slapped twice, was furious. However, under the threat of death, he could only admit defeat. He said dejectedly, "I am the night watchman of Marat Security. My boss is Saul. He is the son-in-law of the company's big boss, Marat Grigorian. I did not count the goods in the warehouse, but there are more than a thousand bottles. They all belong to Marat Grigorian."
"However, we're just a small company with dozens of employees. Even Marat Grigorian is just a small boss who doesn't have much money to buy such a large batch of goods. Therefore, according to my observation, the real owner of the valuable goods in the warehouse isn't Marat Grigorian, but someone else …"
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