“170 gold?”

“This has to be a joke, right? Even if grains are worth their weight in gold these days, still…”

This auction was not for the purpose of selling luxury items such as jewels or artworks. It was for procuring foodstuffs with the aim of selling them elsewhere at a higher price. Therefore, if one was not confident that they could sell the goods at a higher price than they were bought here, they would only incur a loss by purchasing them.

600 sacks of oats for 170 gold.

No matter how much the merchants gathered here racked their brains, they could only conclude that purchasing these goods at that price would only result in a loss.

‘170 gold is too much. Never mind any profit, it’s uncertain whether you can even recover the principal at that price.’

The person from Bemerick Merchant Company who had bid the previous price of 155 Gold turned towards the individual that called 170 -- that person was someone that he recognized.

It was one of the branch managers of the Charlotte Merchant Company whom he himself had some dealings with before. Among the merchant circles, although this individual was not particularly innovative in his commercial projects, he was famous nonetheless for consistently striking deals that were sound and prudent.

So it was all the more incomprehensible that a person like that would make such an unconventional deal.

‘Speaking...