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Year 7446, Month 12, Day 28
After traveling to the capital the other day, everyone split up to do their own things, the faster ones even left last night. One night passed into this morning, after breakfast Miduchi and I went to the sausage factory and then she left go shopping saying, "I'm going to Tukerin-san's place for greetings with a bit of a "year-end gift"." I said I would pay a visit to Tukerin's clinic after I finished my business as well so we'll meet up there.
First off is going to the castle with brother and the others to make rubber deliveries.
With this we've almost completely finished taking orders from the first knight group. Starting next time we have orders for four suits of armor from the first knight group and the remaining seven suits are all from the second knight group. Though I say that, it's not as if this is the end of our relationship with the first knight group. Only about 60% of the knights and squires have purchased the rubber armor our family makes.
I'm sure the remaining 40% will order a suit even if their current armor is still usable once the period comes where they can get the subsidy from the knight group and there's some people who are already using it that will probably buy a new suit again in seven years when they can receive the subsidy again.
In comparison to the leather and metal armor that they've used up until now it's a flaw that rubber armor runs out of durability in fewer years. However, the merits are that it's cheaper than metal armor, light, and the defense isn't all that lower, furthermore the cost of repairs are so cheap it's not even worth comparing them. It's really great that it's thanks to that we were able to form and maintain this business relationship for so long.
It's unfortunate that it's not as flashy as platemail and full plate armor, so it's not very good for appearances. Probably just in that regard no matter how effort we put into it I don't think we can win. Well, ebonite plate has a pretty good gloss to it as well. Though the color is just a bit..It's too plain.
That's why for the above-mentioned reason there will definitely remain a need for metal armors. Certainly I'm sure that by being pressured by our rubber armor the number of orders they'll get will fall considerably compared to before but they'll never run out completely. Adding to that as well, after all the defensive capability of metal armor is still higher. Though it's heavy. Of course, there was also the idea to just add a thin layer of metal to the surface of the plate portions as well.
However, if we end up going that far...I already discussed this with brother and father before but we came to the conclusion it wouldn't be very profitable.
It's better to just gradually spend a number of years continuing to push the name of the {Bakuddo Brand}. In regards to the production amount as well, even if we increase it it's thought that around double the current amount, or at greatest 2.5 times more would be the limit. Even then in the next 10 or 20 years we should be the largest armor maker in the country. I wanted to wedge into a corner of the oligopoly of the market and control it to some extent but it's not like I want to buy resentment from monopolizing it.
In any case, starting next time we'll primarily be doing business with the second knight group. Unlike the first knight group which can receive a subsidy payment every seven years for half the price of their individual equipment, the second knight group only gets a 30% subsidy everyone seven years so it's expected that the percentage of members who make orders will be far less than the first knight group.
However, the total number of members is a completely different set of digits. In the second knight group there's five times the amount of cavalry knights than the first knight group at 500 people. Even when it comes to the infantry squires they have 20 times the number at 1,000 people. If it were to come to the third or fourth knight groups then the number of people increases even further. Supposedly there's no subsidy for personal equipment for the third and fourth knight groups but even then when it comes time for them to replace their armor I think that eventually about 10% would purchase our armor.
If we take the order cycle into consideration then I don't think there would be any major effects on the market even if we raise the number of orders we take by a few suits next year. After all, it seems that a workshop that makes platemail from start to finish is at it's limit with just two suits per year. Even when it comes to the specialized workshops at best they can manage five suits. That's why it's extremely expensive. It's far too expensive so there's countless knights who can't afford it and end up just enduring with splintmail, bandedmail, scalemale, or even in the worst case just chainmail.
The people who were aiming to deal with are those sorts of people or those who dislike metal armor because of the weight. Even in the first knight group, I'm sure there's probably people that won't purchase our armor because it's too plain. But, almost all of the people that don't use rubber armor say they're envious of light armor. Though I'd be happy if the number of customers increase.
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