“Do you think we don’t know the price of horses and carriages? We know that’s a reasonable price.”
“We will lend the horses and carriages to the coachmen. However, we cannot just lend them out blindly. They are worth at least 30 Gold, after all. On the other hand, someone could take the horse-drawn carriage and horse to another city and run away, or they might be negligent with maintenance. If someone runs off with the horse or carriage, who compensates us? That’s why we take a deposit to cover those risks. Oh, the deposit is exactly that—a deposit. It’s an amount that will be returned to you whenever you decide to stop the business.”
“An amount that’s returned whenever?”
“Yes. Once you terminate the agreement with us. However, if a problem arises, we will return it after deducting the costs for any issues with the horse or carriage. And what are you worried about? If our company runs into trouble, you can just sell the horse and carriage to get your deposit back.”
A buzz of conversation broke out again here and there. Hearing that it would be returned… some voices sounded relieved.
It isn’t the case now, but in the distant future, coachmen will buy horses and carriages from our Company. The era of private taxis… no, private carriages would open. But for now, we must operate centered around the Company.
“But who among us could pay such an amount? It’s an amount we couldn’t save even if we worked our entire lives…”
I know they receive about one gold coin a month… If they work hard, 30 Gold is an amount they can certainly save. But if they save what’s left after living expenses, it might indeed take a lifetime.
“Who said I was taking 30 Gold?”
“Didn’t you say just now that the price of a horse and carriage is 30 Gold?”
“Hah… Then are all you coachmen planning to run away?”
At those words, Mabelly the coachman bristled.
“We are by no means such people. If we were, we would have gone up into those mountains to become rogues. If we hated rogues, we would have at least joined the Red Beard Band.”
I was surprised to hear the Red Beard Band mentioned out of nowhere. I want to go meet them to form the Mercenary Company soon…
“Of course, I don’t think so either. And if anyone does run away with a horse and carriage, our Unicorn Company and Unicorn Mercenary Company will chase them to the ends of hell to get our revenge.”
“Your Mercenary Company?”
“Didn’t you know? I am the Merchant of the Unicorn Company, but I am also the Champion of the Unicorn Mercenary Company.”
I showed the Commander’s Badge that proved the existence of the Mercenary Company. Currently, there are zero mercenary members. But it’s not like the Mercenary Company doesn’t exist…
No one would pay 1 Gold a year to establish a Mercenary Company with zero members, so the coachmen will probably assume there are at least a few people.
Whoosh!
A cool breeze blew from behind. Slot, who had been standing silently like a bodyguard, swiftly pulled his sword from his back and swung it at a high speed. Even to a novice in swordsmanship like me, it was a clean and flawless movement. I was a bit startled by the sudden sword swing myself.
Nice! That was a sensible move. We’re perfectly in sync. I’ll forgive three of your future visual-related offenses.
“I will introduce just one person. As for this gentleman, he is a mercenary whose skills have been guaranteed by a Knight officially knighted by the Ashford Young Lord.”
“I… I see. We have no intention of fleeing either. It’s only natural, as we are people gathered to do honest work.”
The coachman’s attitude became slightly more respectful after seeing Slot’s skill. I made a V-sign with my fingers.
“I will only take this much.”
“20 Gold?”
I shook my head.
“It’s 2 Gold. 1 Gold for the carriage, 1 Gold for the horse. I will take exactly 2 Gold.”
“2 Gold?”
In fact, 2 Gold is woefully insufficient. If they run away with the horse and carriage, the loss would be immense. But if the deposit is too high, I won’t be able to gather coachmen. A Startup must always take a certain amount of risk to build infrastructure.
“You’re saying you’ll only take 2 Gold for this deposit thing? And you’ll definitely return it later?”
The coachmen seemed to buzz at the mention of 2 Gold. After all, they were the ones who knew the price of horses and carriages better than anyone.
“Yes. I’ll trust the coachmen and take only 2 Gold. However, I cannot accommodate all the coachmen right now. I will only take the first 50 people on a first-come, first-served basis. Oh, and I don’t plan on increasing the number of carriages beyond 50 until things stabilize for the time being.”
There were about 50 coachmen here. If word got out, there would be over 100 coachmen at the Carriage Exhibition Hall. In a sense, those who came to catch Meat had earned a first-come, first-served opportunity.
“2 Gold is a burdensome amount, but it’s not an amount we can’t pay.”
If converted to Republic of Korea currency, it would be about 4 million won. It’s not an amount everyone can earn in a month, but coachmen are classified as professionals; if they meet a good Noble or Company, they receive 1 Gold as a salary.
From a coachman’s perspective, they can think of it as putting down two months’ salary as a deposit.
As expected, I could feel the coachmen’s gaze turning a bit more favorable.
“Hmm… Understood. Let’s discuss this part more among ourselves. And what is the distribution?”
Finally, the core topic came up. The distribution. It’s the actual amount the coachman takes home. How much should we distribute?
For the survival of the coachmen, we must distribute at a high ratio, but for the Maber Startup to survive, we must distribute at the lowest ratio possible.
“The distribution is, literally, transparently sharing the money earned from operating the carriage. Actually, our Company plays a very large role. We operate 50 carriages and need over 50 horses. We also have to receive destinations and relay them to the coachmen every day.”
I explained our risks in as much detail as possible.
“Also, can 50 horses and carriages run every day? The horses need to rest, and the carriages need maintenance. You coachmen need to rest too. I think it’s appropriate for the carriage, horse, and coachman to rest for 5 days and go out for operation for about 25 days. It would be nice if the horse, carriage, and coachman could all rest at the same time, but we also have to design a dispatch system where they operate differently.”
I think it’s appropriate to work about 25 days per carriage. There would be parts that operate in two shifts. To the coachmen, it would be a complicated task just thinking about it.
“It is also our duty to calculate the usage time and distance to distribute the appropriate amount. You coachmen only need to operate the carriages, but we will be doing a lot of work.”
I appealed as much as possible to the part where we do a lot of work.
The maintenance and operation of the horses are done by the coachmen, but all other systems are the duty of Maber. My spit-flying passionate speech made the coachmen nod.
“That’s true. We just need to drive the carriages well. The Company will indeed have many roles.”
“Even so, I will give you half of the profit.”
“Half?”
The buzzing sound from the coachmen grew louder. Giving half… After my passionate speech, they probably thought they would only get about 1/10th.
The sound of agitation grew here and there. It seemed that coachmen who liked the current conditions were appearing.
“Yes. I plan to give half of the profit to the coachmen. By my estimation, if you earn 5 Gold a month through operations, you’ll be taking home a whopping 2.5 Gold.”
2.5 Gold a month. That’s more than double the average coachman’s salary. Even though a coachman is a professional job, it’s more than five times the average salary.
Of course, ‘distribution’ or ‘profit sharing’ based on how much you work, rather than a fixed salary, is the appropriate expression.
“You can earn 2.5 Gold a month? Do you think we’ll believe such absurd talk?”
The coachman said that, but I could feel his voice trembling. Would anyone dislike the chance to earn more money?
“I see it as fully possible.”
While designing the Maber business, I roughly calculated the monthly costs. My plan is that if a carriage yields a profit of 5 Gold per month, there will be no loss.
If 50 carriages earn an average of 5 Gold each, the total monthly profit is 250 Gold. Even if 2.5 Gold is given to the coachman, the net profit is over 1 Gold, even after calculating 0.5 Gold for the carriage price, 0.5 Gold for the horse price, and 0.5 Gold for Maber’s operating costs.
It’s a simple calculation and a rough one. In reality, the profit will be larger. The horse price of 0.5 Gold will fill 50 Gold within 2 months based on 50 units, and after that, it’s calculated as net profit.
Also, Maber’s operating cost of 25 Gold. It’s a generous operating cost setting. 25 Gold a month. 1 year is a net profit of over 300 Gold. It would be about 600 million won… If the number of Maber carriages increases, ten times that is possible.
As time passes, operating costs will decrease, so it’s a high-profit business.
‘All of this is possible because I leased the carriages for free and contracted the horses at an unbelievable price.’
At first, I thought of the distribution between the Maber Startup and the coachmen as about 7:3. But as the conditions improved, I concluded that it would be possible to distribute more to the coachmen. While it’s good for the company to take more profit, since a Startup is a business that takes on a challenge with insufficient resources and manpower, promising large rewards to members when it goes well is a good strategy.
The coachmen were surprised by the mention of 2.5 Gold. And Meat, who was tied up, was also surprised. Why are you surprised too…
“But William. Can one carriage really earn 5 Gold a month?”
Instead of helping, Meat went straight for the core issue.
Are you an ally or an enemy… And you should call me the Merchant…
“Of course. Earning 5 Gold is a fully possible calculation. Didn’t I say earlier that each carriage works for 25 days? Then how much would we need to earn a day?”
“Huh? That’s…”
Everyone is equal before mathematics. All the coachmen were silent.
“0.2 Gold. That’s 4 Silver.”
Instead of Meat, Slot answered. Did he receive a high school education? He’s smart…
“Right. 4 Silver.”
In other words, you just need to earn 400,000 won a day.
“I plan to charge 1 Silver for one hour of carriage operation.”
I don’t remember exactly how much taxi fares are, but I judged that 1 Silver (100,000 won) is an appropriate amount for providing a live horse and a high-end carriage for an hour’s operation.
“Of course, we’ll have to calculate the time and distance. And if someone rents it for the whole day, I think it would be good to charge about 10 Silver. Now, then, how many hours would you need to operate to earn 40 Silver a day?”
“Uhh? That… I mean? If it’s 1 hour for 1 Silver… 4 hours?”
At least Meat is an ace of our Communal Living Area and a very smart guy. If it were Arancini or Pasta, they would have gotten it wrong. I was counting on you.
“Correct. You just need to operate for more than 4 hours a day.”
“Then you can earn 2.5 Gold a month?”
Meat’s mouth hung open. I told you not to keep acting surprised… but it’s having an effect.
I clearly explained it yesterday, but maybe because I didn’t calculate it into monthly figures like this, he seems surprised by how much more we can earn than expected.
I looked around at the coachmen and said.
“If you operate for just 4 hours a day, you’ll take home 2.5 Gold. But you know, right? A day isn’t just 4 hours…”
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