Shadow Empire

Chapter 96: Small Talk and the Political Costs
For the lower class people, cheap and low-quality whiskey that costs less than one dollar, or preferably less than fifty cents, is what they need most.

But for someone at James' level and the big shots he's about to meet, talking about such low-priced wine has no practical significance.

High-priced wine only makes sense.

Arthur nodded and said with some pride, "The first batch of wine I stocked up was mid- to high-end wines, Gold Label and Delan."

James glanced at Congressman Williams, who closed his eyes. However, in James' heart, the label of Arthur as his mentally retarded brother could no longer be removed.

He didn't even know what he should stockpile in the first batch and what he should stockpile in the second batch. He was able to make money this time by sheer luck.

If he didn't have a good father who told him in time that Jingang City was banning alcohol, he wouldn't even be able to make a penny from alcoholic beverages!
But...who made his last name Williams?
"Tell me the details of your stuff and how much you plan to sell it for. Don't worry about the rest. Just wait to get paid."

"Also, with such a large sum of money, you need to consult how to legally avoid taxes, otherwise the taxes will kill you."

Arthur talked about the wine and suddenly thought of something, "There is a small problem."

He scratched his cheek and said, "I mortgaged those high-end wines to Qiaobafu..."

James frowned, "Do you plan to get your wine back through other means?" Before William could say anything, he shook his head, "Jobav recently invested in a municipal project promoted by the mayor. He is the mayor's man, so don't use those dirty tricks on him in the future."

"Follow the agreement you signed."

William was a little surprised, "How much money did he give to the mayor?"

"350,000, and 100,000 in political donations." Afraid that William wouldn't understand, "no less than 25,000 per quarter."

Four hundred and fifty thousand.

Arthur was silent, "I see."

James asked Arthur to take out all the documents and then left. For him, time was precious.

After Lance returned, he asked everyone in the warehouse to withdraw. The warehouse had been guarded by Ethan and his men. When they were called back, they realized that the wine had been sold.

Lance didn't hide this either, "Four hundred and sixty-five thousand, I will deposit two hundred and thirty thousand into the company account. If you have time, go look for a suitable, safe house nearby."

“It would be best if the townhouse had a yard so that we could renovate it and connect several houses together.”

He glanced at Ennio and said, "Go run, and let Maurice drive you."

Ennio readily agreed. It would take some time for his arm to heal. Although he no longer needed to wear a splint, he still could not bear weight or be subjected to impact.

There is no way I can get anything done, I can only run errands.

Lance gave them twenty dollars for running errands, gas, food, and so on. The bottom line is not to let employees use their own money to subsidize the company.

Lance was not in the company the whole afternoon. He went to some places with factories to get a feel for the market situation.

The next morning, Lance went to the City Business Services Bureau again to visit Patricia and register another company.

"So what are you going to do this time?" Patricia handed a form to Lance. The colleagues around him all smiled, but some were very sad.

While filling out the form, Lance replied, "I plan to register a clothing company and produce clothes."

Patricia was a little curious, "What exactly do you do, and why is the gap between each business so big?"

"One moment it was a consulting company, the next it was a labor agency, and now it's a clothing manufacturer?"

Lance shrugged. "I need at least tens of thousands of costumes. Even if they only make me ten cents per piece, that's still a few thousand dollars."

"And I'll be producing more clothes in the future, so I might as well open my own factory."

“And it doesn’t cost much.”

The Jingang City Hall encourages the opening of businesses and factories because it can provide more job opportunities for the residents of Jingang City and the state.

Job opportunities are related to social security, stability, and public support for politicians, so they attach great importance to this.

The capitalists can force the federal government, in addition to having money, connections, and leverage over government officials, the most important thing is that they control the jobs and income of residents.

This is the most terrifying weapon. They don’t even need to stand on the opposite side of the government. They just need to tell the workers that the factory has to stop production and the company has to be temporarily closed because of a certain policy. Those angry workers who are afraid of change will destroy the government!
Regardless of whether it is necessary or not, having more jobs in hand will only bring benefits and no disadvantages.

The land outside Jingang City is not valuable and can be obtained at a very low price. The only hard requirement is to provide jobs to the society on a per square basis.

If this can be done, these lands will be given almost for free.

But if you can't do that, you will need to pay various fees, which are written in the contract.

Patricia shook her head after hearing this. "It's hard to imagine why you would need so many clothes, but... who cares!"

"Are you free this weekend?"

Lance handed her the completed form, "Not necessarily, but I'll try to make myself available. I'll tell you the answer Saturday afternoon."

Patricia worked on his forms while whispering, "My cousin's birthday is on Sunday, William is going to the state government, and my mom has an outing planned with other people, so I don't want to go alone."

"I'll try my best!" he said, and then asked, "If I want to acquire land around here, can William take care of it?"

Patricia shook her head. "I'm not sure. I'm not interested in his work."

After Lance left, some of Patricia's colleagues couldn't help but ask her about some things about Lance. She was too embarrassed to admit it before, but now she admitted it openly.

And he went straight to City Hall and found William, the Public Utilities Office.

Looking at the other four people in the office and their desks, Lance finally decided to go outside and talk to him alone.

Fortunately, the City Hall did not have any clear requirements on whether civil servants must be on duty during work hours, so the two sat down in the coffee shop in front of the City Hall.

"I want to get a piece of industrial land and open a factory myself." Lance stated his purpose straight away. "Who should I contact for this?"

"The Bureau of Land Management, but there are people at the city hall who can handle this matter. Do you plan to open a factory yourself?"

"Garment factory." He briefly explained the reason and his thoughts. "So they will take the money from a factory from me, so why don't I open a garment factory myself?"

"When I don't have my own needs, I can still take orders from others, as long as it doesn't become a financial burden to me."

William couldn't help but marvel at Lance's idea. "It's a very mature and powerful idea. You're doing the right thing. Besides, providing jobs will help you get more policy support."

"Even if you violated some rules in other matters."

He has already investigated more clearly what Lance is doing. After all, they are all in the "recognition" stage, so naturally he needs to know more about what Lance is doing.

Loan sharking that exploits legal loopholes is not illegal if the amount is small, and it is not illegal if the amount is large.

According to labor introduction, there is currently no federal law that stipulates that work cards cannot be rented or transferred. It only stipulates that people without work cards or permanent residency are not allowed to work in the federation.

He doesn't do illegal business, but he's not legal either.

At this time, if he can provide some job opportunities for the society, then even if problems arise, they can be better solved.

That’s how the Federation people think.

After talking about Lance's own affairs, Lance was a little curious about William's current situation. "It seems that you are not very happy in the city hall. Others have separate offices, but you have several people over there."

"Have you ever considered a change of environment?"

William had no negative feelings about this, "because I'm a Federalist."

"Here they don't care whether I have the ability or not, they only care about my political stance."

“It’s the same everywhere.”

"In the federal party's territory, the Liberals and Socialists will not have an easy time either, just like me."

"And even if I go to those federal party territories, my actual situation won't change much. I lack a backing, and no one supports me. I won't be better than I am now. On the contrary, I may be worse, because in their eyes, I will become a threat that can compete with them."

"But here, no one sees me as a threat, so it doesn't matter to me."

Ruined.

It's natural for them to do so. As civil servants in the city hall, they enjoy the best treatment and benefits. This kind of rottenness is also what many people want.

“Have you ever considered taking it to the next level?”

William glanced at Lance and said, "We'll discuss this issue when you're able to stand in that position."

“It’s too early to talk about it now.”

Lance didn't care about his rejection. "I just want to find out how much it costs to push someone like you up."

William frowned, "It seems that you did make a lot of money." He thought for a moment, "Tens of thousands of dollars, but it's meaningless."

“Even if I were put in charge of an office, I would still only be able to do what the mayor tells me to do every day, rather than doing whatever I want to do.”

Lance then asked, "What about the city councillor?"

William was a little surprised, "Do you have so much money that you can't spend it all?"

But he still answered, "This is a long-term investment. There are ten constituencies in Jingang City. We first need to gain a lot of support and votes in one of them."

"After I am elected as a councillor, I will need about $15,000 a year to maintain the basic expenses of myself and my team. This refers to the expenses when you do nothing."

"If we want to do something, we have to hold various political events and invite some people to cheer us on. Do you know why many city councillors have been in office for many years?"

“Because the investment in pushing a new legislator to power is too high, but the benefits may not be very high!”

He drank the last bit of coffee in the cup again. "If you want a valuable congressman, you need to prepare more than 60,000 dollars a year. Every year."

(End of this chapter)