Chapter 300

Chapter 300

The carriage drove unhurriedly through the streets of Port Fulan, the skillful driver maneuvered the horses, the car drove very steadily, with only a little bumpy feeling.

Bennett Todd sat inside the carriage and closed his eyes, secretly marveling in his heart, worthy of being a carriage produced by the Lake Town Mechanical Factory, after installing the marvelous shock absorbing device it was just comfortable, the buttocks were not uncomfortable at all.

I heard that the shock absorbing device was developed by Guy Burns, the director of the machine factory, who is a senior engineer that the lord dug out from the king’s capital, Jingyao.

After leisurely experiencing the new seat for a while, Bennett turned his thoughts to his recent business.

Under the auspices of the Council of State’s policy of fostering industry and commerce, Bennett didn’t invest in the various new industries advocated by Earl Paul Greiman as impatiently as other businessmen did, but instead, he still managed his old business, the shipping industry.

Whether it is any industry, the production of things to be sold, and the Northwest Bay has always been poor, although the Lord is committed to improving the livelihood of the people, but this is not a year or two things, at this stage of the common people do not have too much money to buy non-essentials, due to the land transportation barriers now in this era, shipping will become a large-scale long-distance transportation of the unquestionable choice, as long as one focuses on their own old business, they will not worry about not making money. As long as he focuses on his old profession, he will not worry about not making money.

Sure enough, the Council of State soon announced that Fullan Harbor Shipyard would launch a civilian-type sailboat, and the Todd family was overjoyed. Since there was already the Quaker Shipyard’s trip south to Horn Bay, Bennett was still very confident with the full windjammer.

However, the price given by the shipyard is also frighteningly high, a sloop ship to 3000 silver coins, a two-masted ship is as high as 5000 silver coins, if you want to add the crossbow guns used to prevent piracy the price is even higher.

At that time, the stock exchange has not been officially opened, it is very inconvenient to raise funds, in the face of Mr. Todd so high prices deterred, in the care of the count of Greiman, the shipyard for the shy ship merchants introduced a convenient measure – installment payment.

Instead of paying the money all at once, after signing the contract, a down payment could be made, and the rest of the money could be paid off in several installments.

This measure is too convenient, Mr. Bennett rekindled hope, the Todd family quickly raised a sum of money before other counterparts to the shipyard to place an order. The Todd family was the largest local shipbroker, and with their family leading the way, others followed suit.

In the first half of the year, Bennett finally picked up a sloop and a catamaran, which he immediately put into his own business. The civilian version of the ship had increased cabin capacity, and was slightly less flexible than a warship, but better suited to carrying cargo (in Paul’s eyes it was very similar to the Clark sloops of Earth’s history). If the shipyard’s director Rubin hadn’t bragged, a two-masted schooner could carry 60 to 70 tons.

Gosh, that’s incredible. Yes, some of the larger paddle schooners are superior to these full-winds, but they also have to be manned by hundreds, if not hundreds, of oarsmen, whereas this new vessel needs to be blown by the wind.

Both ships proved to be more than a bargain in their own business, and Bennett loved them so much that he took the larger schooner on a personal trip to Horn Bay to see for himself how prosperous the South was, a world that had previously only existed in his imagination.

Bennett also took the letter of introduction issued by the Lord’s House to visit the Foster family, to determine the two sides in the business relationship, which in the past is not even dare to think.

He had already planned to order more sailing boats to replace the existing oar sailing boats of the family.

“Master, we are at the place.”

The carter’s words interrupted Bennett’s bright thoughts about the future.

“So soon?” He opened his eyes, and while walking down from the carriage, he instructed the driver, “I’ll go down first, so you don’t have to wait for me outside for now, just come and pick me up when we arrive at the agreed time.”

What came into view was a tavern, and after the coachman drove the carriage away, Bennett walked inside.

Explaining his identity, he was led by the waiter to a room, in which there were already a lot of people sitting, all of them were the head of the various industries in the vicinity, paper makers, porcelain burners, and producers of canned goods, and the one who was the most familiar with himself was the salt merchant, Gerdwin.

These people have one thing in common – in the State Council to foster industry and commerce and technology sharing policy will be the family property multiplied several times. Well, actually, Bennett himself counted himself among them.

“Ha, Bennett, you finally came over, everyone’s been waiting for you!”

Godwin stood up to welcome him to the table.

Bennett wore an apologetic expression, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my family’s ship just brought back a shipment of oriental spices from Horn Bay, I had to check it out myself.”

Shit, oriental spices! The crowd spewed acid furiously in their hearts, invisible pretenses are the deadliest.

After the crowd exchanged pleasantries, they finally entered the theme of this gathering – discussing the war bonds issued by the Council of State.

Gerdwin raised his voice and asked, “Do all of you have any thoughts on war bonds?”

“This ……” No one responded positively, just discussing in twos and threes, and the gathering crowd gradually split into two factions, one leaning towards buying the bonds – within their means, of course – and one believing that it would be best to stay out of this.

An older merchant twirled his whitened beard and shook his head, saying, “In theory, it is the duty of our subjects to help the lord in his plight, but …… but ……”

A man next to him spoke on for him, “But we also have a small capital and thin profits, we really have the heart but not the power.”

The words of the two men caused many people to resonate, “Yes, we are just a mere merchant, how can we get involved in the disputes of the noble lords.”

Their views were immediately refuted, “Hmph, you guys are really ungrateful.”

“What? How can you say that.”

“Think about what kind of life you guys had before, and then look at now, each and every one of you riding in luxurious carriages and wearing fine clothes. Small capital and thin profit? I’m afraid it won’t make people laugh, who doesn’t know that we’ve made a fortune under the Count’s favor.”

The two factions argued about each other. Why gather to discuss this?
Many of those who opposed the purchase of the bonds thought like this: what if the earl lost the fight after buying the bonds? Wouldn’t the money spent go down the drain, or would it be safer to do business honestly? But if I don’t buy them and others do, the Count will only put me in bad shoes, so it’s better if we all don’t buy them.

Those who are in favor of buying bonds think like this: if the Count loses the fight, I can’t let my money go down the drain, it’s better if everyone loses their money.

In short most people convince each other with the idea that I can’t be left alone in an extreme situation.

“Ahem, gentlemen!” Godwin stood up and spoke.

He was leaning towards buying the bonds, “Let’s all take a longer term view.”

The crowd turned their eyes to him.

“When you look at the Northwest Gulf, there’s still no noble’s territory that’s as friendly to merchants as Arda.”

This was true, the crowd secretly nodded, not just the Northwest Gulf, but the merchants of the Kingdom of Aldo were all fat in the eyes of those in power.

“In case Lord Earl loses – may the heavens forgive me for being so disrespectful – and lets the Kent family gain power, will there be any more good times for us now?”

A chill welled up in the hearts of the crowd, Maltz Kent was a skin-drawing master.

“If Earl Gleiman can keep the territory, it’s fine, we’re just sharing some of the war reparations. But in the worst case scenario, if the Count’s territory is stripped and a new lord is appointed, do you still want to go back to the old days when you couldn’t pay all the exorbitant taxes and the darkness couldn’t reach your head?”

A blow from the soul, many of the people here had already started to subconsciously shake their heads. After Paul Greiman succeeded to the throne, he canceled all kinds of messy taxes and assessments one after another, and lived a comfortable good life for more than a year, as if he felt that this was how life should be. In fact, if you compare vertically, people are paying more taxes than before, but only if they’re also earning more ah.

Bennett did not say a word as he looked at Gerdwin, who was trying hard to persuade the crowd, and wondered how his old friend, who had always been a character who did not take the lead in anything, had become so active today.

Thinking left and right, Bennett’s head flashed and thought of a certain possibility.

Oh, it looks like he’s been preempted, he has to act quickly.

Besides, he also thought that those words of Godwin’s were very reasonable. Since he had personally traveled to a trip to Horn Bay, Bennett’s eyes had widened quite a bit, and while he envied the affluence of the south, a sense of inferiority always lingered in his heart. But he thought that he could also achieve achievements comparable to those of the giants of Horned Bay, but this required the right environment.

A seedling could only grow into a big tree in the right environment, and he couldn’t let that environment spoil it.

Making up his mind Bennett stood up.

“Gentlemen! Please listen to me for a moment!”

……

(End of chapter)