Chapter 141: Heaven Is Too Small

At this moment, in the room, the men sitting across from William had already made their decision. They would invest in this business, but the method would change somewhat.

A small amount of money, plus other things that could offset value, in exchange for shares in the business.

This was in fact also the process by which a syndicate formed. Certain businessmen with common positions began developing a more intimate form of union with one another. Eventually, they would form a community of interests centered on a core company or a core figure, with extremely complex relationships, and finally evolve into the kind of syndicate people envied desperately while also hating and resenting.

In truth, when these men said they needed to “consider,” William already understood that the matter was basically settled. He flicked the ash from his cigarette. A large chunk of ash fell from the butt to the floor, split open, scattered, and perhaps would finally become nothing but a smear of dust beneath an accidental step and grind of William’s shoe tip.

He lowered his leg, stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, and stood. The men across from him also stood. After shaking hands with William, they left under his gaze.

Standing outside the hotel, William took out another cigarette. He lowered his head slightly and cupped his hands. The flare of fire instantly lit his face, then quickly went out, leaving only a faint, intermittent spark.

From the very beginning, he had known very clearly that this business would not last long.

The peak periods of secondhand trade usually came during the early stage of economic development and the early stage of economic decline. In both periods, the whole society still had relatively strong material demand, while people’s economic ability could not satisfy that demand. That was when the secondhand goods market association became unprecedentedly hot.

But it would not last too long. Once people completed their initial accumulation of funds, or once they no longer had freely disposable wealth, the market for secondhand goods would begin to shrink.

Right now, everyone seemed to still have money, but that situation would soon disappear. More and more people were losing their jobs. When they could no longer pull money from their pockets, even cheap secondhand goods would become difficult for them to afford.

At that time, the profitability of the Secondhand Goods Auction would begin to fall rapidly. Add in his incentive system, and losses might even appear.

But that did not matter, because before then, he would already have completed his initial personal accumulation of assets. These people would very likely try to push down the price of Interstellar Trading Company, but William would not let them succeed.

In commercial operations, if one wanted to prove that the real value of a commodity exceeded the price people had assigned to it, the simplest method was to introduce rivals who could lift the price, just like bidders at an auction.