Empire of Shadows

An annual expense of sixty thousand dollars is what it takes to maintain a city councilor with some value. This is the price William quoted Lance, a price he considered reasonable.

“I don’t know how much money you make each year now, but clearly, these things are still far from your reach.”

“What you should be considering now is stabilizing your job, and then broadening your horizons. When you become wealthier, you won’t need to invest in those councilors; they will all come to you.”

William lowered his voice slightly, “All ten city councilors in Goldport City have connections with the Coda family, but none of them were put there by the Coda family. Do you understand what I mean?”

Lance nodded, “I understand.”

But understanding is understanding, and what needs to be expressed still needs to be expressed. “William, I’m saying, if, if you were planning to maneuver to become one of them, do you think you would have a chance?”

This coffee shop is not low-end; after all, the city hall is just across the street, and each cup of coffee comes with two cookies.

The cookies have chocolate chips, not the soft chocolate or chocolate sauce type, which provides a nice texture, especially when chewing.

The sweetness it emits and the coffee complement each other, forming a good chemical reaction. William picked up a small cookie and put it in his mouth, “If I plan to run, the Federalist Party will definitely support me, provided I don’t need them to contribute financially.”

He clapped his hands and leaned back in his chair, “Winning would be a surprise for them, and losing wouldn’t make them feel regretful or suffer any losses, but are you really planning to do this?”

Honestly, he was a little tempted. After all, being a “waiter” in the city hall versus being a prominent city councilor – as a middle-aged federal man, he still hoped to shine.

Seeing the confirmation in Lance’s eyes, William got a little excited, “The party will definitely support me. There are also many capitalists with Federalist Party backgrounds in Goldport City; these are all my advantages.”

“But they won’t be the key advantages. You know, this is the Social Democratic Party’s territory. At most, they can give me a check for two hundred dollars, but they won’t stand up and openly support me.”

“So we need to carefully choose a district, a district with little competition, where it’s easy to get votes.” As he spoke, he couldn’t help but ask again, “Are you really planning to do this?”

Lance took out a cigar from his pocket and tossed it to him, “Am I joking with you?”

“Tell me, if I want to help you become a councilor, to what extent do I need to go?”

Looking at the cigar in his hand, William said thoughtfully, “Money, votes, and momentum.”

After listening, Lance memorized these three keywords in his mind, then got up, “I still have to go to the Land Management Bureau. I’ll contact you when I’m almost ready.”

Watching Lance’s departing back, William’s calm heart suddenly felt a ripple.

The Land Management Bureau is not far from the city hall, at most a five-minute walk. After explaining his intentions in the lobby, Lance was invited to an office.

A middle-aged man greeted him.

The most profound impression this guy gave Lance was his shiny head, a head that could reflect light bulbs!

“Mr. Lance, all the land plots are here.” As a map was unfolded, the entire Goldport City appeared in a different form before Lance.

It was marked into many regular shapes and painted with different colors.

Residential land, commercial land, wharves, ports, public utility land…

The city thus became somewhat… trendy!

Finally, his gaze was guided by this gentleman to the western industrial concentration area, “This part is the land where we have already done basic construction. The ground has been hardened, and there are simple factory buildings and supporting warehouses.”

“If you set up a factory here, you only need to pay us rent.”

“And this part is the original land where we haven’t done any processing. If you want to take them down, you first need to pay the city hall the cost of purchasing the land according to the price marked on it.”

“Secondly, the factory you need to build needs to comply with the Goldport City Industrial Management Regulations.”

This management regulation refers to the basic “social responsibilities” that need to be fulfilled when opening a factory, that is, hiring workers and the like.

“I heard you are planning to open a garment factory?” The Mediterranean man seemed very outgoing and was still talking while Lance was observing the maps.

Lance handed him a cigarette, “Any good suggestions?”

The price of each piece of land is different. The cheapest place only needs twenty dollars to buy an acre of land, but the same area in different places requires nearly four hundred dollars. The price difference is too big!

Lance didn’t know much about these things. It seemed that the Mediterranean man in front of him could provide him with some help.

The Mediterranean man took the cigarette and lit it, “If you don’t plan to open a large factory with thousands of people, my suggestion is to directly rent the basic factory land we provide for small businesses.”

“It’s this piece. You only need to pay a rent of ten to twenty cents per square foot per month to enjoy all the basic facilities here. We will also give you a 100-square-foot warehouse.”

“Before your factory area exceeds two thousand square feet, my personal suggestion is to rent.”

Two thousand square feet sounds like not much, but in fact, according to two square feet per job, this area can already provide at least five hundred jobs.

If warehouses and the like are used in the factory area, then eight hundred jobs are bound to be available.

And his monthly expenses are only a few hundred dollars.

“If you want to buy land and do it yourself, these lands around two hundred dollars per acre are very suitable.”

“They are moderately away from the main road and are already within the city’s near-term plan. The planning bureau has done the basic road planning. You only need to ask people to construct according to the construction design drawings.”

“The ground treatment in this area is relatively simple. There are no huge stones. Just find a construction company and it can be completely cleaned up within a month…”

He said a lot of things, including how a piece of land becomes a factory from wasteland.

This involves many problems, such as the construction of roads. It doesn't mean that you can build a road connecting the factory and the main road as soon as you buy the land.

Perhaps there will be other plans between your factory and the main road. You have to ask the planning bureau whether you can construct like this.

If you are lucky, they will tell you that there is no problem, but if you are unlucky, they will tell you that you have to detour a few kilometers, because there are already other plans between you and the main road.

Then there is the problem of accessing water and electricity. For planned areas, service providers will build them for free. If not, they will suggest that you build them at your own expense first.

When the area you purchased becomes prosperous, they will purchase the power grid and water network you built at the market price, but if there is always no one here, then they will never do so—

The Mediterranean man told Lance that in fact, they would most likely keep the price very low.

The cheaper the land, the higher the time and investment it takes to turn it from land into a factory area. If Lance is willing to reclaim wasteland and build a factory in the wilderness on the edge of Goldport City, the city hall will only symbolically charge one dollar per acre, and it will completely belong to Lance!

For large enterprises with strong strength, they don't care, directly taking hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of acres of land. Of course, the cheaper the better.

But for small enterprises, especially start-up enterprises, the Mediterranean man's suggestion is to directly rent a place in the factory area that has already done infrastructure.

Of course, buying is also possible, but the price is very high.

Lance stretched out his hand again, “Your help is very important to me. Let me reintroduce myself, my name is Lance, Lance White.”

The Mediterranean man quickly threw the cigarette on the ground and stretched out his hand enthusiastically, “John Brown.”

He saw Lance put a five-dollar bill in his hand, and he couldn't close his mouth at this time.

Having received the unexpected joy of five dollars, he naturally introduced the situation here to Lance more enthusiastically.

“Your suggestion is very meaningful to me. If I plan to temporarily rent a 1,000-square-meter factory building, and later consider the possibility of expansion, where should I choose?”

For the sake of that cigarette rather than the money, the Mediterranean man marked some plots on the map for Lance, “This is very suitable. It is not far from the main road and is very close to the public warehouse.”

“It’s very convenient in all aspects. It only takes ten minutes to walk from the bus station.”

“And the later expansion of the factory is also very convenient, but the rent is slightly more expensive, requiring eighteen cents per square meter, and other expenses add up to about two hundred and twenty dollars per month.”

Lance quickly made a decision, “This is the place, then what?”

The Mediterranean man helped him fill out a form, “Take the form to the City Service Bureau…”

Lance's head started to hurt. He didn't expect that there were so many gatekeepers in the federal government department, “This is my first time handling it, it’s a bit complicated, is there any agency service?”

The Mediterranean man said with a smile, “Yes, generally there are intermediary companies to help, and very few people run it themselves.”

“I’m afraid it’s a bit too late to find one now. Listen, John, I think we will become good friends in the future. Can you run this errand for me?”

The Mediterranean man was a little dazed, “But I still have work to do.”

Lance closed the door and took out ten dollars directly, “I’ll treat you to coffee.”

John stared at the ten dollars on the table, unable to look away. After a long while, he finally spread his hands and looked at Lance with a smile, "I'm just doing my duty as a friend!"

Lance also responded with a smile, "Yes, who could blame you for that?"

Soon, John had requested leave. This was the advantage of being a civil servant; as long as the reason was reasonable, the supervisor would most likely approve it.

And John's reason for taking leave was that he had a stomachache, requesting two hours off.