Due to the need for pomp, or rather, the dignity of the Royal Family, Queen Therese arranged a large number of attendants for Otto after learning of his plans to travel to Paris, expanding the planned entourage several times over.
Otto had no recourse against this and could only watch Queen Therese direct her servants to pack things into boxes.
“Won’t so many people delay us on the road?” Otto felt a headache coming on as he watched Queen Therese direct servants to load large and small packages onto the carriages.
“These are all necessities. When you go to Paris this time, you cannot lose the face of a nobleman in front of those regicides,” Queen Therese emphasized.
Ever since the French Revolution guillotined Louis XVI, many monarchs and members of Royal Families across Europe began to view the French revolutionaries as regicides, while also finding fault with the people in the French Parliament.
Even though France had once again become a kingdom at this time, a large number of European nobles still considered France to be ‘full of unruly commoners’.
Since he was not yet an adult, Otto had to plead for a long time to get his parents to agree to his trip to Paris, which also came with a nominal diplomatic mission.
“By the way, our family still has a vineyard in Bordeaux that produces 20,000 bottles of champagne every year. Not long after your father and I got married, we even picked grapes together in that vineyard.
In winter, you can also choose to vacation by the sea in Nice. The Mediterranean is completely different from the Baltic Sea; it has beautiful scenery and a pleasant climate…”
As she spoke, Queen Therese fell into reminiscence. The couple’s relationship had been good for a long time after they got married; otherwise, it would have been impossible for them to have nine children. But now…
Shaking his head, he put these thoughts aside and said to Queen Therese:
“Mother, I am going to Paris for business. As for vacationing and sightseeing, we can talk about that after the business is handled.”
Otto didn’t particularly care about seaside vacations. Once he became King of Greece, he would have the opportunity to enjoy the Mediterranean seascape every day.
But if he couldn't earn enough money to develop Greece, he might not be in a relaxed enough mood to enjoy it.
He was more interested in the vineyard, however. All he could think about now was making money, and starting a wine brand seemed like a good way to earn money.
“Business matters can be left to the butler below. As a nobleman, there is no need to be like those Jews who only see money.”
Queen Therese frowned and said, “I don’t want to see you become such a mercenary person.”
Queen Therese’s attitude was actually the common perception of most nobles in this era. Faced with wealthy merchants, nobles still had a sufficient sense of superiority.
Because at present, except for France, the political power in continental Europe was generally controlled by the aristocratic class. Even if those wealthy merchants had money, it did not prevent the nobles from viewing them as upstarts.
Otto did not directly refute this deeply ingrained ideology.
However, with the development of the times, the bourgeoisie will inevitably gain control of political power step by step through various methods, and the monarchy in continental Europe, like the nobility, will gradually decline, which is the general trend.
Railways were still a very new thing in this era, so travel could only rely on horses.
The massive convoy of carriages departed from Munich and took more than twenty days to reach Paris. This speed was truly uncomplimentary to Otto, who had experienced airplanes and high-speed trains in his previous life.
Otto naturally knew how to ride a horse; in fact, most European nobles learned to ride from a young age, but in most cases, Otto still chose to ride in a carriage.
The main reason was that long hours of riding a horse were a terrible ordeal for Otto’s backside, and intimate contact and friction with the saddle often led to hemorrhoids.
Looking at the outline of Paris from afar, Otto was slightly surprised. At this time, among European countries, except for England, other countries had not yet begun industrialization. Otto originally thought Paris would at most be like a larger county town, and he never expected it to reach such a scale.
Standing on the high ground downstream of the Seine River, overlooking the entire city, as far as the eye could see, the edge of the city was nowhere in sight.
Moreover, upon closer inspection, there were clearly continuous blocks of buildings within the city, while the city's edges were a chaotic sprawl of single-story houses, somewhat resembling the favelas of Rio de Janeiro seen in movies.
The roads leading to Paris were continuously filled with crowds of people and carriages pulling various goods. After a brief observation, Otto and his party blended in with them.
The Bavarian Royal Family also owned property in Paris, similar to the estate-style mansions of wealthy individuals seen in some American films. It was originally located in the suburbs, but as Paris expanded, many buildings gradually appeared around it, turning it into an urban area.
Otto’s party consisted of nearly two hundred people, of whom forty-six were department store staff brought by Otto, and the rest were servants and guards.
It was just afternoon after everyone had been settled. Otto had his accompanying butler visit the Paris government first.
After all, his visit to Paris this time was nominally for a friendly exchange. Afterward, he arranged for people to notify the department store staff previously sent to Paris to come and see him.
A few hours later, the department store staff arrived at the estate and, at Otto’s request, presented a detailed report on the recent expansion of the department store in France.
Because Otto had already given notice when he was preparing for the trip, the report was quite detailed. Currently, the department store had already finalized partnerships in several important cities in France. In some cities, like Paris, the department store had already opened and appeared to have bright prospects.
However, compared to Germany, the penetration rate was clearly a step behind. Large cities like Paris and Marseille were fine, but the expansion progress in medium-sized cities was much slower. Local protectionist forces always exist, and this is even more true in smaller places.
“Given the current situation, what countermeasures do you have?” Otto put down the report in his hand, rested his hand on the desk, and tapped the surface with his index finger, asking the person in charge of the French region.
“In those large cities, we can cooperate directly with the prominent nobles. They have deep connections with us, and whether it’s contacting suppliers or finding partners, many things can be discussed without expending too much effort. Our ability to expand quickly before also benefited from this.
Most of the obstacles our department store faces in other places are actually caused by local merchants bribing local officials.
Many of the products our department store sells overlap with those of these merchants.”
Facing Otto’s question, the person in charge answered without much hesitation: “In these places, we don’t have as many familiar connections, so it’s not as easy to promote quickly like in the big cities. It requires sufficient time and more effort.
In addition, we have also found that in some places, shopping malls imitating our department store have appeared. Currently, only two or three such instances have been discovered, but this situation is already worth our vigilance…”
“Has it come so quickly? Well, it has been over half a year since the first department store opened, but the sensitivity of European merchants in this era is even beyond my estimation.”
Listening quietly to the person in charge’s report, Otto thought to himself, “It seems I was too optimistic before. Since followers have already appeared, large-scale imitation will be unavoidable next. Competition is about to begin.”
